First of all try to isolate the problem. Ex, if you think GPOs are creating problems, create fresh OU, place a new server in that OU, block inheritance and check the problem.

Complete the following procedure to troubleshoot slow logon issues on XenApp:

Note: Complete Steps 1 to 3 with the same user account, in a load balanced environment. It might be necessary to log on to multiple Remote Desktop Servers to verify if the issue is seen on one or more servers.

1. Log on to the same server using Microsoft’s RDP client instead of the Citrix Receiver. Remote Desktop Server is Microsoft’s updated name for a Terminal Server.

2. From a workstation on the LAN, log on to the Remote Desktop Server with an RDP or ICA desktop session.

3. If applicable, from a workstation on the WAN, log on to the Remote Desktop Server with an RDP or ICA desktop session. Important! Steps 1 to 3 gives an idea whether or not the logon issue is strictly related to XenApp or is more likely a profile, logon script, network, or other user environment issue.

4. For profile issues, remove any references to a profile path from the Remote Desktop User and/or user profile path within Active Directory users and computers, or Computer Management. Alternatively, create a local account directly on the Remote Desktop Server to ensure the profile is being loaded directly from the server. Retest the logon time. Note: New user accounts, accounts without a local profile, and anonymous accounts need to generate a local profile upon logon. The creation of the original profile might take time. It might be necessary to log on a second time when troubleshooting a profile issue. Verify if local copies of the user profiles are being cached or deleted on logoff, because this can slow down logons if they are deleted on logoff using a Microsoft Policy. The profile having to be rebuilt on the server each time the users logs in slows down logons.

5. Verify if Citrix User Profile Management (UPM) is being used to manage user profiles. If so try disabling the service on one server and retesting. If this improves the issue, look over your Citrix UPM policies.There might be something in the configuration causing the issue. To enable UPM logging, see CTX126723 - How to Enable and Retrieve Profile Management Log Files.

6. For logon script issues, remove any references to a logon script within Active Directory users and computers, Computer Management, or any sort of computer or group policy. Creating a local account directly on the Remote Desktop Server and testing might be worth the time. If a logon script is the issue, it might be necessary to REM (comment out) or input pause statements throughout each section of the logon script. This will help troubleshoot the resources in the logon script that are slowing down the logon process.

7. For Network issues, such as font searching might cause slow logins on Remote Desktop Server are often difficult to find and troubleshoot. Network monitors or sniffers and other third party utilities such as Process Monitor from www.microsoft.com can be used to troubleshoot these issues.The following are some of the symptoms of this issue:

   • Occasionally, the logon process on a Remote Desktop Server might be very slow because an application is searching for fonts (usually caused by older applications).
   • During the logon process, users can encounter a black screen for 1 to 20 minutes before the logon finally completes. The effect is magnified as the bandwidth is reduced; dial-in users experience the problem much more severely than LAN users.
   • Network traces on such systems will reveal that a process running on the Remote Desktop Server is searching for fonts by name during the logon process and not finding them.

   Complete the following steps to resolve this issue:

   1. In the system Control Panel click the Environment tab.
   2. In the System Variables section, click the variable Path.
   3. Add the following to the end of the string in the Value field at the bottom of the panel: ;%SystemRoot%\Fonts
   4. Click Set. The changes take effect immediately.

8. The issue might be related to the permissions on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \MSLicensing registry key. For the Citrix Receiver to function properly, the user requires Full permission on this registry key. The other symptoms that are indicative of this issue are the local workstation administrator and power users are not affected.

9. Try disabling the XenApp virtual channels for 1 user using a XenApp policy (client drives, audio, printing, com ports, USB redirection). If this helps enable each channel to examine which channel might be causing the issue and investigate further. For example, if printing is the issue, then delete the printers off the user’s workstation then log in. If this works then add each of them back to see which channel is causing the issue. Also verify if there is an updated driver available from the vendor.

10. If an antivirus product is running on the client device, disable it and retest the connection to the XenApp server.

11. Examine the session for a possible hung process. Try to terminate the hung process to see if this speeds up the logon process. If it is a third-party process then consult with the vendor of the process to further troubleshoot the issue.

12. For published applications, investigate, within the Delivery Services Console, or Citrix AppCenter. Navigate to the Properties on the Application > Printing section and ensure Start this application without waiting for printers to be created has been selected as the default.

13. If applicable, disable session reliability. See CTX104147 - Explaining ICA Session Reliability, Common Gateway Protocol, on TCP Port 2598 for more information.

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