Command Line install of Citrix Receiver for Windows

With the current version of Citrix Receiver for Windows at the time of this writing being 4.5, I will talk about some of the command line advanced command line install options available which allow you to be more precise and customisable with your Citrix Receiver installs.

The Receiver installer self-extracts to the user’s temp directory before install and roughly requires 80MB of free space in the %temp% directory.

To install Receiver via Command Line, firstly change the command prompt directory to the location storing your CitrixReceiver.exe file. Typing CitrixReceiver.exe ? or /help in to command prompt gives the following output:

The switches are explained briefly below:

• /help – Displays help on using the command line to install Citrix Receiver including the switches involved
• /uninstall – Removes any existing installation of Citrix Receiver from the machine if found
• /silent – Silently installs Citrix Receiver with no graphical output shown to the end-user
• /noreboot – Prevents any machine reboots or reboot prompts during installation
• /preview – Displays a preview of changes without altering the machine
• /extract (folder) – Extracts self-extracting package to an existing folder essentially extracting each MSI file from the .exe so you can separately install components i.e. SSON, USB Redirection, HDX Flash Redirection
• EnableCEIP=true/false – Enables or Disables the CEIP.
• /includeSSON – Installs the single sign-on component for domain pass through logon. The related option ENABLE_SSON is enabled when /includeSSON is on the command line. Note that you can tick to include/exclude install of the SSON component when running the graphical installation of Receiver. If you use the ADDLOCAL= option to specify which features to install and you want to use SSON you must specify the SSON value.
  

Note that to enable pass-through authentication you must install Receiver on a Windows device with Local Administrator rights via command line with the /includeSSON switch or via the GUI by ticking the option to include SSON. Furthermore you must configure Group Policy on the client device editing the Administrative Templates -> Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) -> Citrix Components -> Citrix Receiver -> User Authentication -> Local username and password object, enabling this object and selecting Enable pass-through authentication.

There are other options and switches available such as:

• /installdir – Specify which directory you want to install Citrix Receiver into. The default location is C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver. If you use this switch you must install RIInstaller.msi from the installation directory you specified and all other .msi files in the installation directory
• /client_name=ClientName – Where ClientName is used to identify the user device. The default value is %computername% which will use the client devices computer name as it is
• /EnableTracing= – Enabled by default. Enables or disables the always-on tracing feature which collects critical logs arround connection time to help troubleshoot intermittent connectivity issues.
• /enable_dynamic_client_name= – This switch allows the client name to be the same as the computer name. If the computer name changes due to an administrator renaming the device, the client name changes to match. Default is Yes however you can turn this off by choosing No and specifying a value for the client_name property
• /addlocal=feature – Installs one or more of the specified components. These components are the ones you would find had you extracted the .EXE contents with the CitrixReceiver.exe /extract command. The components are:
  • ReceiverInside – Installs the Receiver experience (required)
  • ICA_Client – Installs the standard Receiver (required)
  • SSON – Single sign-on
  • AM – Authentication Manager
  • USB – Installs USB support
  • DesktopViewer – Installs Desktop Viewer (for viewing of XenDesktop/XenApp Desktop)
  • SELFSERVICE – Installs the self-service plugin, which allows users to access virtual desktops and applications from the Receiver window or from a command line. If this is not installed, users must access their applications and desktops via the web (Receiver for Web)
  • Flash – Installs HDX media stream for Flash
  • Vd3d – Enables the Windows Aero Experience for operating systems that support it and have it enabled

  Note that the ReceiverInside and ICA_Client are mandatory components and must be installed. Also note that these component names are case-sensitive so must be typed as displayed above.

  • /enable_kerberos= – The default value is no. Specifies whether the HDX engine should use Kerberos authentication. This only applies when single sign-on (pass through) authentication is enabled. When Receiver uses Kerberos, Kerberos authenticates without passwords for Receiver. Receiver supports Kerberos domain pass-through authentication for deployments that use smart cards. As this method authenticates without passwords, this can prevent Trojan horse style attacks on the user device as no passwords exist to be gained
  • /enableprelaunch= – The default value is false. Prelaunch is supported with StoreFront 2.0 and above. Prelaunch works when a user logs on to Receiver and can reduce application launch times during high traffic periods
  • /startmenudir=Textstring – Shortcuts to subscribed applications by default appear under Start Menu -> All Programs however you can organise them under a sub-folder such as Start Menu -> All Programs -> Citrix Apps. To do this you would include STARTMENUDIR=”\Citrix App” in your command line install. Users can change or move the folder at any time. It is also possible to configure this via Registry. Note that if the destination folder has a space DO NOT use a trailing \ i.e. STARTMENUDIR=”\Citrix App Folder\”. Instead use STARTMENUDIR=”\Citrix App Folder” and use quotation marks. If the folder does not have spaces then STARTMENUDIR=\CitrixAppFolder\ is fine without quotations.
  • /desktopdir=Textstring – Brings all shortcuts in to a single folder. When using this option be sure to set the PutShortcutsOnDesktop key to True. This can be set via the Group Policy using receiver.admx.
  • STOREx=”storename;http[s]://servername.domain/IISLocation/discovery;[On|Off];[StoreDescription]”
    • Storename – This must match the Citrix Store name configured on the StoreFront server
    • Servername.domain – The FQDN of the server(s) hosting the store, or load balanced URL
    • IISLocation – The path to the store within IIS
    • On|Off – This is an optional setting. The default option is On. If set to on, this enables you to deliver disabled stores. If off, the store will be unchecked and has to be manually checked in Citrix Receiver under Accounts to be able to deliver resources.
    • Storedescription – An optional description of the store, such as HR App Store

    Note that is important to include /discovery in the store URL for successful pass-through authentication

    Example command: STORE1=”CITRIX;https://storefront.domain.com/citrix/citrixstore/discovery;Off;ProductionStore”

    • /ALLOWADDSTORE=N/S/A – N – Prevents users from adding or removing stores
      • S = Allows users to only add secure stores (HTTPS)
      • A = Allows users to add and remove both secure and non-secure stores (HTTP)

      Finally, here is an example Citrix Receiver install command:

      CitrixReceiver.exe /silent /includeSSON /STARTMENUDIR=\CitrixApps\

      Citrix Receiver 4.8+ Auto-Update

      A couple of new switches exist to control the behaviour of the auto-update feature.

      • /AutoUpdateCheck – Configure auto-update to be on, off or manual. Values accepted are AUTO, MANUAL and DISABLED.
      • /AutoUpdateStream – Control if auto-updates are for LTSR versions only or Current Release versions. Values accepted are LTSR or Current.
      • /DeferUpdateCount – Allows you to specify the number of times you can defer an update notification. Values accepted are -1 to 30. -1 means the user can defer any number of times.
      • /AURolloutPriority – Specify the speed of which a rollout of an upgrade will be performed. Values accepted are Auto, Fast, Medum and Slow.

      Citrix Receiver 4.10+ Advanced Preferences

      A couple of new switches exist to control the Advanced Preferences menu.

      • /DisablSetting – Values accepted are:
        • 0 – Set this value if you want both Application Display and Reconnect Options to be displayed in the Settions Option withn Advanced Preferences.
        • 1 – Set this value if you want the Settings Option within Advanced Preferences to only display the Reconnect Options tab.
        • 2 – Set this value if you want the Settings Option within Advanced Preferences to only display the Application Display tab.
        • 3 – Hides the Settings Option within Advanced Preferences.

        32 Comments

        Ryan

        September 29, 2016

        Where/how can you get a log of the installation? if there is an error I’d like to check the logs to get a better view of why it error’d during installation

        George Spiers

        September 29, 2016 %appdatalocal%\Temp
        You will see a folder called CTXReceiverInstallLogs

        Mari

        October 1, 2016

        Ho George, You have a very nice website thanks for the help.
        I am having trouble installing receiver 4.5.
        I use SCCM to make a image where Receiver 4.5 is in.
        When i use PVS to install the image the ADD Account screen (receiver keeps showing up). Now i made a batch file where i have this command line: “%THISDIR%CitrixReceiverWeb.exe” /includeSSON /silent /noreboot but still it is popping up. The Citrix website says:
        http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX135438 Completely Suppress the ‘Add Account’ Window by Renaming Citrix Receiver
        Rename CitrixReceiver.exe to CitrixReceiverWeb.exe. This solution works through both the GUI install and CLI install. As you can see i have renamed it but do i need to include something else?
        Or is the commandline i put in not good? Thank you

        George Spiers

        October 1, 2016

        I tried CitrixReceiverWeb.exe before too and it doesn’t work but you do have several options: – Configure Store through Citrix Receiver ADMX policy. Doing this automatically configures a store for your users so that the Add Account popup never appears. Maybe this is something you don’t want however if you want users to use Self Service and you are working within an enterprise environment this is recommended.
        – Configure Receiver so that users are not allowed to add stores using ALLOWADDSTORE=N during CLI install. Again, maybe this is not desirable and you want users to be able to add their stores.
        – You can create a DWORD value of HideAddAccountOnRestart=0x00000001 within HKCU\Software\Citrix\Receiver to suppress and Add Acount box.

        Mari

        October 1, 2016

        Thank you so much for your reply George.
        I started in March this year and i am learning on the job.
        I work on a environment 11000 users. We do not want our users to Add stores at this moment. Can i add the Hideaccountonrestart in a .cmd file ?
        something like: reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\Receiver /v EnableHideAddAccountOnRestart/t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001/f If i am wrong with the reg command pls feel free to correct it. Thank you

        George Spiers

        October 1, 2016

        Yes reg add HKCU\Software\Citrix\Receiver /v HideAddAccountOnRestart /t REG_DWORD 0x00000001 /f
        or a .reg file Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\Receiver]
        “HideAddAccountOnRestart”=dword:00000001