Citrix XenDesktop ICA Optimizations and Tweaks

David Paoleschi sent over to me some quick tweaks when building a Citrix XenDesktop environment.  Many of these optimizations specifically target XD environments that operate over WAN connections where latency might be an issue.  Your Mileage may Vary. :)  

Many of the settings were snagged from this Citrix Support DOC.  I have also added some comments on the various settings when possible. 
A very good document explaining many of these settings can be found here.WAN Optimizations

Optimization for WAN ICA settings

Edit the default.ica located under ‘C:\Inetpubwwwroot<Site Directory>conf’ with the following additions:

Under [WFClient] add the following:

· CPMAllowed=Off

Disables LPT Port redirection

· VSLAllowed=Off

Disabled the Printing Virtual Channel associated with LPT redirection

· UpdatesAllowed=Off

Disables Client update functionality

· OutBufCountHost=118

· OutBufCountHost2=118

This setting affects the max amount of server to client data that the connection will try and keep active at any point.

· OutBufCountClient=118

· OutBufCountClient2=118

This setting affects the max amount of client to server data that the connection will try and keep active at any point.

· OutBufLength=512

This setting aligns with the underlying packet size for wireless networks. Citrix testing has found this value to be the optimum value for most networks.

· PersistentCacheEnabled=On

Enabling the persistent cache decreases logon time and improves the performance of graphics operations during an ICA session

· MouseTimer=200

· KeyboardTimer=50

Enabling these parameters reduces the number of small mouse and keyboard packets sent to the server.

Intermediate mouse packets are discarded and a number of keystroke packets are coalesced into a single larger packet.

· ConnectionBar=0

Enables Full Screen only mode.

Under [Application] add the following:

· MaximumCompression=On

· Compress=On

Enables Maximum Data Compression

· ZLMouseMode=1

· ZLKeyBoardMode=1

These values enable SpeedScreen3 Latency reduction features.

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