Modifying the Default ICA file and Configuring Custom Hotkeys

In certain situations, it is useful to be able to send shortcut keys to the session desktop especially if you’re using a Windows OS as the client device where certain keystrokes are captured by the client.

In this scenario, let’s picture a kiosk client machine using Windows ThinPC that auto logs in and displays the StoreFront or NetScaler Gateway logon page. The user will login with their credentials and launch their desktop. It may be necessary to send keystrokes for example to lock their session or reach the “Ctrl-Alt-Del” screen. In cases where the client device desktop is intended to be protected or hidden from the user and the session full screened, the desktop viewer toolbar will often be disabled. Doing this enables the use of hotkeys being sent to the session desktop.

Doing the following will configure the default ICA file for the StoreFront store so that the hotkeys are configured for all sessions that are launched. Now the users will be able to use hotkeys such as Ctrl+F1 to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del key sequence.

Add the following to the default.ica file under the WFClient section usually found at [C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\Store\App_Data] (If your store is called “Store”

Hotkey1Char=F1
Hotkey1Shift=Shift
Hotkey2Char=F3
Hotkey2Shift=Shift
Hotkey3Char=F2
Hotkey3Shift=Shift
Hotkey4Char=F1
Hotkey4Shift=Ctrl
Hotkey5Char=F2
Hotkey5Shift=Ctrl
Hotkey6Char=F2
Hotkey6Shift=Alt
Hotkey7Char=plus
Hotkey7Shift=Alt
Hotkey8Char=minus
Hotkey8Shift=Alt
Hotkey9Char=F3
HotKey9Shift=Ctrl
Hotkey10Char=F5
HotKey10Shift=Ctrl
Hotkey11Char=plus
Hotkey11Shift=Ctrl
Hotkey12Char=F12
Hotkey12Shift=Shift
Hotkey13Char=F11
Hotkey13Shift=Shift

Go into the StoreFront console and Configure the Receiver for Web settings, change the Client Interface Settings, and uncheck the “Show Desktop Viewer” setting.

Try launching a session and you’ll be able to send hotkey commands now.

This Citrix article goes into further explanation: https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX140219

In this video I am going to quickly demonstrate configuring session hotkeys that can be used to send an Control-Alt-Delete command to the session desktop and other useful key sequences.

“https://youtu.be/fcRmWFMDcNk”