Windows Server 2016 Optimizations for Citrix XenApp

When it comes to operating system optimization, I have two sides battling with each other. Although optimizing does improve single server scalability, I believe the more you mess with the OS the greater your chances are that you will break something.

Default Apps

Unlike Windows 10, which had numerous default apps that increased user logon time, Windows Server 2016 is free from such additions.

Services

Many of the services we disabled in Windows 10 are already configured as manual startup in Windows 2016. Looking deeper, it would appear that many of these services are either started based on a request by an application or based on a scheduled task.If a manual startup service is disabled, then any application or system component that tries to interact with the service will fail. This will result in application/system issues, support calls and long troubleshooting times.Based on that , the only service that you think about disabling is:

Note: Microsoft published a list of services that can and should not be disabled. Most services that can be disabled are configured for manual startup mode.

Service Name

Default State

Default Status

Hosted Apps Workloads

Hosted Desktop Workloads

Themes

Automatic

Running

Disable

Enable – better user experience

Disable – better server density

Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled tasks will sporadically impact density as they only run when a trigger is tripped. When determining what to disable, we need to look at the value the task has in a non-persistent environment. This assumption is based on the XenApp Best Practice of server consistency.

Scheduled Tasks – Applications

Tasks	Description
Application Experience \ Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser	Helps resolve application compatibility challenges.
Application Experience \ StartupTask	Determines if there are too many startup entries and then notifies the user

Scheduled Tasks – Microsoft Customer Experience Program

Tasks	Description
AutoCHK \ Proxy	This task collects and uploads autochk SQM data if opted-in to the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program.
Customer Experience Improvement Program \Consolidator	If the user has consented to participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program, this job collects and sends usage data to Microsoft.
Customer Experience Improvement Program \KernelCeipTask	The Kernel CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) task collects additional information about the system and sends this data to Microsoft. If the user has not consented to participate in Windows CEIP, this task does nothing.
Customer Experience Improvement Program \UsbCeip	The USB CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) task collects Universal Serial Bus related statistics and information about your machine and sends to the Windows Device Connectivity engineering group at Microsoft. The information received is used to help improve the reliability, stability, and overall functionality of USB in Windows. If the user has not consented to participate in Windows CEIP, this task does not do anything.

Scheduled Tasks – Safety

Tasks	Description
Windows Defender \ Windows Defender Cache Maintenance	Can be disabled in case an alternative virus and malware protection has been implemented.
Windows Defender \ Windows Defender Cleanup	Can be disabled in case an alternative virus and malware protection has been implemented.
Windows Defender \ Windows Defender Scheduled Scan	Can be disabled in case an alternative virus and malware protection has been implemented.
Windows Defender \ Windows Defender Verification	Can be disabled in case an alternative virus and malware protection has been implemented.
Windows Filtering Platform \BfeOnServiceStartTypeChange	This task adjusts the start type for firewall-triggered services when the start type of the Base Filtering Engine (BFE) is disabled.

Scheduled Tasks – Maintenance

Tasks	Description
CHKDSK \ Proactive Scan	NTFS Volume Health Scan
Diagnosis \ Scheduled	The Windows Scheduled Maintenance Task performs periodic maintenance of the computer system by fixing problems automatically or reporting them through the Action Center.
DiskDiagnostic \ Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticDataCollector	The Windows Disk Diagnostic reports general disk and system information to Microsoft for users participating in the Customer Experience Program.
Maintenance \ WinSAT	Measures a system’s performance and capabilities
Power Efficiency Diagnostics \ AnalyzeSystem	This task analyzes the system looking for conditions that may cause high energy use.
RecoveryEnvironment \ VerifyWinRE	Validates the Windows Recovery Environment.
Registry \ RegIdleBackup	Registry Idle Backup Task

Scheduled Tasks – General

Tasks	Description
Mobile Broadband Accounts / MNO Metadata Parser	Parses information related to mobile broadband users
Power Efficiency Diagnostics \ AnalyzeSystem	This task analyzes the system looking for conditions that may cause high energy use.
RAS / MobilityManager	Provides support for the switching of mobility enabled VPN connections if their underlying interface goes down.
Shell / IndexerAutomaticMaintenance	Maintains the search index
WDI \ ResolutionHost	The Windows Diagnostic Infrastructure Resolution host enables interactive resolutions for system problems detected by the Diagnostic Policy Service. It is triggered when necessary by the Diagnostic Policy Service in the appropriate user session. If the Diagnostic Policy Service is not running, the task will not run

User Interface

Many of the user interface optimizations have been used on Windows Server 2000 and beyond, consisting of good practices in order to hide administrative items from the user and to have more efficient overall usage by disabling a few user interface capabilities.

Optimization	Configuration
Disable default system Screensaver	HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\ControlPanel\Desktop “ScreenSaveActive”=dword: 00000000
Hide Hard Error Messages	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows] “ErrorMode”=dword:00000002
Settings “Visual Effects to Custom”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects] “VisualFXSetting”=dword:00000003
Disable “Show translucent selection rectangle”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] “ListviewAlphaSelect”=dword:00000000
Disable “Show shadows under windows”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] “ListviewShadow”=dword:00000000
Disable “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ControlPanel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] “MinAnimate”=”0”
Disable “Animations in the taskbar”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] “TaskbarAnimations”=dword:00000000
Disable “Enable Peek”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM] “EnableAeroPeek”=dword:00000000
Disable “Save Taskbar Thumbnail Previews”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM] “AlwaysHibernateThumbnails”=dword:00000000
Disable “Smooth edges of screen fonts”	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel\Desktop] “FontSmoothing”=”0”
Disable the rest of the visual effects	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel\Desktop\] “UserPreferencesMask”=RegBin: “90,12,03,80,10,00,00,00”
Disable cursor blink rate	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel\Desktop] “CursorBlinkRate”=”-1″
Disable Internet Explorer First Run Wizard	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Main] “DisableFirstRunCustomize”=dword:00000001
Reduce menu show delay	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop] MenuShowDelay”, “0”

System

The final optimizations are focused on system-level settings, allowing organizations to get the most value of their systems.

System – BIOS

Optimization	Configuration
Max Performance	Verify BIOS is set for maximum performance and not low power.

System – Commands

Optimization	Configuration
Disable hibernate	Powercfg -h off

System – Registry updates

Optimization	Configuration
Disable NTFS Last Access Timestamps	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem] “NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate”=dword:00000001
Disable Memory Dump Creation	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl] “CrashDumpEnabled”=dword:00000000 “LogEvent”=dword:00000000 “SendAlert”=dword:00000000
Increase Disk I/O Timeout to 200 Seconds	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk] “TimeOutValue”=dword:000000C8

Daniel (Follow on Twitter @djfeller)
Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 VDI Handbook
XenApp Best Practices
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7 thoughts on “Windows Server 2016 Optimizations for Citrix XenApp”

Sidney April 11, 201711:47 am Reply

Hello Daniel. Nice post!
Is there a way of using XenApp with Windows Server 2012R2 but delivering the “Windows 10” user experience present in Windows 2016?

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1. Markus May 21, 201711:15 pm Reply
  
  nope. because windows server 2012 is equivalent to windows 8/8.1
  
  windows 7 = server 2008R2
  windows 8/8.1 = server 2012/R2
  windows 10 = server 2016
  
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Walhalla April 14, 201712:17 pm Reply

Very nice!
I am a bit confused on the last setting in this article “Increase Disk I/O Timeout to 200 Seconds”.
Why is this necessary? I have read the following article, which tells the opposite:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/san/2011/09/01/the-windows-disk-timeout-value-less-is-better/

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Vincent CABERAS September 5, 20175:48 am Reply

nobody for answer to Walhalla Question ??

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virtualfeller September 5, 20174:01 pm Reply

There is a concern that during high storage activity time (like a VM migration) that the disk might not respond in a timely manner, resulting in disk failures.

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Craig September 22, 201711:15 am Reply

Hi Daniel,

Have you benchmarked the resource utilisation of Server 2016 vs previous OSE’s? We’re running XA 7.15 now on Server 2016, almost all the usual optimisations etc, but our sessions consume over 3GB frequently, compared to 400-500MB on XA 6.5/Server 2008 R2

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Ieltxu December 29, 20172:16 am Reply

Hello!

We are setting up a couple of W2012 VDIs for the company we are working for and the want this optimizations done by GPO.

It looks quite ridiculous to me and an unnecesary job but that’s what they want.

Do you know about any adm pack that it can be downloaded in order to avoid doin it policy by policy?

thanks!

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