Citrix Workspace app for Windows is an easy-to-install app that provides access to your applications and desktops using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops from a remote client device. Citrix Workspace app provides access from your desktop, Start menu, Citrix Workspace user interface, or web browsers. Chocolatey is software management automation for Windows that wraps installers, executables, zips, and scripts into compiled packages. Chocolatey integrates w/SCCM, Puppet, Chef, etc. Chocolatey is trusted by businesses to manage software deployments. The Citrix Workspace environment is faster, always available, stable, and extremely user friendly. And the best thing about it is that users say they don’t even notice it because it always works. You or your users can download and install (and upgrade) Citrix Workspace app for Windows and other Citrix Workspace apps from the Citrix website. Alternatively, you can make those Citrix Workspace apps available from the Workspace or a StoreFront server.
Components: By default, Citrix Workspace app for Windows is not installed with the VDA. If you are using the VDAWorkstationCoreSetup.exe installer, Citrix Workspace app for Windows is never installed, so this check box is not displayed.
Now that many are asked to work from home as a measure to avoid or reduce COVID-19 virus infection, you might meet some challenges using your home computer. These computers are outside your company’s control and management and might need a bit of update and preparations to ensure that you can work comfortably from home.
This guide is based on Windows 10 since but should beapplicable to Windows 8 as well.
Most PCowners don’t pay too much attention to their PC and especially today when manyusers can cover most of their needs using a cell phone or a pad.
It is time to blow of dust from the good old home computer and prepare it for home office duty.
This guide will cover the following topics:
- Driver booster, https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php
- Windows Update
- Win 10 major Update, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
- Edge Chromium, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4501095/download-the-new-microsoft-edge-based-on-chromium
- A web browser plugin that’s a must-have. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clickonce-for-google-chro/kekahkplibinaibelipdcikofmedafmb
- Citrix Workspace App, https://www.citrix.com/downloads/
- Office 365, https://portal.office365.com
- Antivirus
- Chocolatey/Ninite
Driver Booster
Your PC has a lot of hardware that requires drivers. Windows 10 will recognize most hardware and provide a driver, but still, you will have a lot of outdated drivers. A useful tool I recommend is Driver Booster that’s currently in version 7 at the time of writing this guide. The Free version of the tool can be found here: https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php. It will scan your PC and offer a convenient way to update all outdated drivers in one click.
Running this utility will make sure your drivers are up to date
Windows Update
Updating Windows is important and something you should do on a regular basis. In most cases, Windows will inform you about available updates and allow you to install them. The updates help make sure your system runs smoothly and ensure that your PC has the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates/patches. Windows will periodically check for updates and install automatically and is a convenient way to keep the system updated. However, you might want to check for updates if you encounter problems or bugs
If youclick the icon in the right lower corner of your screen, and then allsettings, a “control panel” will open. Select Update & Security
Alternatively, you can click the Start button in the lower-left corner of your display and type wup and then click Check for Updates.
Click the Checkfor Updates button to search for updates/patches online. If the searchreturn one or more suggested updates, then please apply them.
When done, your PC’s operating system is updated to the current standard
Windows 10 November 2019Update
Microsoft releaseslarge updates twice a year and these will eventually be available using WindowsUpdate. I personally like to install these as soon as they are available, andthe current release is 1909. To get this installed manually you can visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Click the Update now button to start the Microsoft Update assistant. This will start the process that will work in the background. You can continue to use the computer until it asks for a restart. You can initiate the restart whenever you want but when initiated, your PC will be busy for the next 30min to 1 hour.
Edge Chromium
Microsoft released a new web browser in January 2020, Edge chromium. A brand-new browser based on the open-source engine from Google. It is quite an improvement compared to Edge and good old IE (Internet Explorer) and I recommend installing it and remove IE and Edge. Simply because it is faster, better and quite nice to use.
Chocolatey Citrix Workspace Login
It can beinstalled from this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4501095/download-the-new-microsoft-edge-based-on-chromium
As a default, it will use Bing as search engine. To change that you open Settings by clicking the 3 dots in the upper right corner of the new browser.
Then selectPrivacy and services and scroll all the way down to the bottom in the rightpart of the settings page.
Click the arrow pointing to the right next to the Address bar and select the search engine you prefer. My preferred is DuckDuckGo. Read more about why here: https://spreadprivacy.com/why-use-duckduckgo-instead-of-google/
There arealternatives to Edge Chromium and you can find a list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers
OK, now you have a modern web browser
A Web browser plugin that’s a must-have
In webpages or intranet, you find links to applications. When clicking you want the application to start up and not just be downloaded as a file that you need to click to start. This can be “fixed” by installing a Plugin that will start up all Click Once programs when the user clicks the link. One suggestion for such plug-in is the one I linked below.
You will have to click the blue bar on top to allow plugins to be installed.
Then you click the button Install to install the plugin and your set to go
Citrix Workspace App
To be ableto log onto your company’s Citrix solution you will need Citrix Workspace app. Thiscan be downloaded for free at https://www.citrix.com/downloads/
Install it and your set to go
Office 365
As an employee in a company that has moved to Office 365, you have access to install an Office suite on your home PC. This can be done by going to https://portal.office365.com. Log on using your username and password (same as you use to log onto the company PC.
You will see a button Install Office. Click it and your done
Antivirus
The built-in Antivirus solution in Windows 10 is good and does not leave a huge footprint. It runs in the background and is updated through Windows Update. Alternatively, you can find a solution by visiting pages like this: https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/best-really-free-antivirus-for-windows/.
I like to read reviews and find a solution that is OK and not too intrusive regarding adds or nag about upgrading to a pro version. Per today I am using the one provided by Microsoft.
Chocolatey/Ninite
Nerd alert. This section is focusing on installingsoftware. All those small utilities we need every day. Stuff like 7-Zip,Spotify, Paint……
Some years ago, many, I started to use an online service Ninite (www.ninite.com). It is a quite user-friendly site that enables you to tick off all the utilities/programs you want and install them all in one operation. The selections you make are compiled into a small exe file you can save on your PC and run whenever you want. It will update all the programs installed using Ninite and you can use the same file for installing it all again if your one of those that reinstall operating system every now and then.
Anotheroption is Chocolatey, my favorite. Visit https://chocolatey.org and install. You find a large Install now link in the upper right cornerof the site. Alternatively, open PowerShell using Run asAdministrator option and type in the following command:
Set-ExecutionPolicyBypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-ObjectSystem.Net.WebClient).DownloadString(‘https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1’))
Go to https://chocolatey.org/packages and finds the package you want to install. You can search for packages or sort the list so that it presents packages in the order you prefer.
When you find the package you want to be installed, you simply click the blue icon to the right for the install command. This will copy the command you need into memory. In PowerShell (run as administrator), paste it in there.
Hit Enterand your done.
Chocolatey Citrix Workspace Client
Let’s sayyou have installed 10 programs using Chocolatey. Every now and then you want toupdate them all and preferably using just one command. choco upgrade all -y
For the advanced user, why not make a script that runs choco upgrade all -y using Task Scheduler
Tips
Use Skype and Teams on your local PC and not via Citrix if you are using that to access company resources.