As many of you know, I recently switched from Windows to Mac. Now that owning a Mac is so trendy there have been dozens of articles and blogs written about how to use a Mac in a corporate environment (hooking up to an Exchange server, firewalls, etc.). In this article, I'll share what I've learned and discovered about using a Mac as a Citrix / Terminal Server admin. (And no, I'm not going to talk about running Windows in a VM on a Mac. I'm talking about a 'real' Mac OS X in a Citrix and Terminal Server environment.)
Using a Mac with a Terminal Server
Prior to the removal of Citrix ICA Client 10.0.0, you should first log into your Mac with an administrator account, and turn Citrix ICA Client 10.0.0 off if it is running. To deactivate an app, right click its icon in the dock and select Quit option (or choose Citrix ICA Client 10.0.0 > Quit Citrix ICA Client 10.0.0 on the Menu bar).
Installing Citrix for Mac OS X (10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7) and configuring Raiser’s Edge Updated May 17, 2012 Step 1 - Download Citrix Download the latest Citrix. Citrix ICA Client is an ICA Clientdeveloped specifically for the Mac OS X operating system, providing native connectivity to MetaFrame servers for Mac users. It adheres to the new Aqua user interface features and behaviors to offer a user experience consistent with other applications running on Mac OS X. I just downloaded the latest citrix client for mac from their website but when I go to launch an app it tries to open the app in VMware. If I right-click on the app and save target as, I get a launch.ica file which if I try to open in Citrix Dazzle it does not know how to open this file type. I have recently been tasked to install Citrix XenApp ICA Client (10.00.603) on Max OSX High Sierra (10.13) and we're running into some issues. I have followed the official guide to installing Citrix XenApp on Mac OSX, which entails the following.
Let's start with Terminal Server. First, yes, Microsoft makes an RDP client for Mac. They call it the Remote Desktop Connection for Mac, and you can download it from Microsoft.com. Right now the RDP Mac client is compiled for PowerPC processors, but of course this will seamlessly run on Intel Macs. (I have an Intel Mac.) The only weird thing is that client printer mapping only works from PowerPC-based clients. I assume that Microsoft will release a universal binary version soon that will fix this problem.
A little quirk to keep in mind is that while cutting and pasting between the local and remote system works fine, you need to remember that each platform uses a different keystroke. So to copy something from your desktop to a remote server, you would need to use OPTION+H on your desktop, and then CTRL+V in the remote session. I can't tell you how many times I think that the clipboard is broken only to finally realize I've been trying OPTION+C in the remote RDP session instead of CTRL+C.
You can also connect to Windows Server 2003 console sessions with the Mac RDP client by holding down the Option key when you click the 'connect' button. Very nice.
The only thing that's super weird about the Mac RDP client is that only one instance of it can run at a time. So if you have a session open and you lauch the RDP client from the Applications folder, it will just pop your current session window to the foreground instead of popping up the box that allows you to connect to a second remote RDP session. Fortunately there is a cool utility that fixes this problem called RDC Launcher. RDC Launcher is this little app that spawns individual and separate instances of the RDP client software. So instead of clicking on the RDP client to open new windows to connect to other systems, you click on the RDC Launcher and it pops up another client. I use this every day and routinely have three or four RDP sessions connected at the same time.
Using a Mac with Citrix Presentation ServerIca Client Mac Os X Download
As for Citrix, yes, Citrix offers an ICA client for the Mac too. It's currently version seven-something (versus nine-something for the Win32 client), but it supports the main features like seamless windows, multiple connections, client printing, client drives and audio, etc. The Mac ICA client also fully supports MIME types in the normal way, so users accessing their applications via Web Interface can just click on an icon to run an application. Gone are the days where the temporary ICA file had to be saved to the desktop and then double-clicked.
There's no Program Neighborhood for the Mac, but that shouldn't really be a problem since it's compatible with Web Interface.
Ica Client For Mac Download
The only really annoying thing about the Mac ICA client is that the Option+H hotkey combination is not passed through to the remote seamless application. In the Mac OS X world, Option+H 'hides' an application, which is kind of like minimizing an app in Windows except that hiding an app also removes it from the dock (the taskbar equivilant). It would be cool if the Option+H command could be used to hide individual seamlessly-published apps, but instead it's intercepted by the local OS and ends up hiding the entire ICA client.
Another cool way to access your ICA apps from a Mac is via the 'Powertoy' components on CDN. One of these components is a Firefox browser extension that's essentially an ICA Program Neighborhood Agent plug-in for Firefox. This extension works fine with the Mac version of Firefox.
Finally, you can connect to Windows PCs using Citrix's GoToMyPC product from a Mac, but a Mac cannot be the remote computer that you're connecting to. However, because the GoToMyPC viewer is Java-based, you won't be able to cut and paste between your local and remote programs.
What's missing?
The biggest bummer about this whole Mac / Citrix thing is that as of today, there is no Mac client for the Citrix Access Gateway. This is a huge bummer for me. I guess it's kind of cool that Mac OS X has a pretty slick and totally integrated PPTP client, and I use it every day. But I still occasionally get stuck at a location that doesn't have the PPTP port open, and I'm jealous of my coworkers who can tunnel in via 443.
The good news in that front is that I interviewed Mark Templeton last week, and I made a passing remark about the lack of a CAG client for the Mac. Mark said that a Mac CAG client is definitely coming. Citrix is looking for strong Mac support since more and more are being sold, and Citrix needs to support whatever client devices the masses are using.
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On this page:
Uninstall previous Citrix versions![]()
Install Citrix Receiver Client for Mac
Using Citrix to access applications from your Mac
Result: Applications available from the MIT Citrix servers are displayed.
NOTE: If you see a prompt to Download the Citrix Receiver client, but it's already installed, choose Already Installed from the links on the right.
Note for off-campus users
To access applications via Citrix from off-campus locations or from a private subnet, you will need to connect to the MIT VPN (Virtual Private Network) before connecting to Citrix.
See: VPN at MIT
Related LinksPrefab Email for use by BH teamCitrix Ica Client For Mac 10.6.8
IS&T has upgraded its Citrix servers. The new servers are available at http://citrixapps.mit.edu, and the updated Citrix Receiver is needed.
Citrix Ica Client For Mac
Instructions for installing the Citrix Receiver client, and access BrioQuery via http://citrixapps.mit.edu are available at:http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/WoBRC
Please note that the new servers do not allow for stored launch.ica files. You'll need to access the applications by navigating to http://citrixapps.mit.edu.
Ica Client For Macintosh
Off campus users will need to first connect to the MIT VPN. More information about the MIT VPN is available at:http://ist.mit.edu/vpn
Thinprint Client Mac For Ica
I hope this helps to clarify. Please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any additional questions. Would you also please let us know if this resolves the issue for you?
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December 2020
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