Network Administrators

I recently installed a CAD viewer as a published application in a Citrix Xenapp installation.  The Xenapp environment is running Windows Server 2008 R2 across all servers in the farm.  The goal was to be able to open .DWG files in this application by double clicking on any .DWG file.   Unfortunately this specific CAD viewer application did not associate itself to any file extensions in the system's registry  Instead, double clicking the file opens the window asking you how you would like to open the file, which would have been a problem.

There are a few ways you can associate a file in Windows Server 2008 R2.  You can choose manually select the program to open and select always open this type of file with this program, or you can associate the file type under default programs in the Control Panel.  Since we are using roaming profiles, these user settings are immediately lost upon log off.  Attempting to associate the file under the administrator account will not apply to all users either.

Furthermore, under the Citrix console you can associate files for published applications within the Content Redirection properties in the published application.  This useful feature applies specific file types to always open with the published application.  The only downside to this is Citrix searches the registry of your Xenapp servers to determine what file extensions can be associated.  The resolution is to manually associate the file type using the assoc and ftype commands on the Xenapp server.

The assoc command allows you to associate the file type with a description:  

assoc .dwg=Drawing Files

The ftype command configures the file type to open with a program:

ftype Drawing Files="Program file path\program.exe" "%1"

Once these commands are entered, update your farm with the new file types.  Right click on the Xenapp server > Other tasks > Update file types from the registry.   The file type will then show up under Content Redirection for the published application and you can apply it to all servers publishing this application.

SkyByte Consulting has many years of experience with Citrix Xenapp installations and support.  Call or email us today!