Citrix deployment guidelines

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Written by Julien | Updated

Summary

This section introduces a step by step guide to deploy UpSlide on the Citrix environment. 

Folder and Registry Replication

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UpSlide has user settings stored in the user profile. For it to work optimally, you need to enable Roaming Profiles.  

In particular, you need to make sure that these registry keys and Folders are synchronized between your Citrix servers: 

  • Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\AddIns\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel
  • Folder: %APPDATA%\UpSlide or C:\users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\UpSlide

Enable UpSlide for only certain users

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UpSlide load is controlled by a registry key in the user hive and can be overridden by the same key in the machine hive. Therefore, you must move all keys installed by default in the machine hive on the user hive. 

Registry and Personal Folder Replication

Why this is important

UpSlide is an add-in for the Microsoft Office suite. It needs to store user-specific settings like license activation status or regional settings. This information is stored in two places: 

  • Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\AddIns\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel
  • Folder: %APPDATA%\UpSlide or C:\users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\UpSlide

If you use a Citrix server farm to deploy the Office suite, you must ensure that the HKEY_CURRENT_USERS hive is properly replicated between all your Citrix servers as well as the AppData\Roaming folder of the user’s session.  

How to do it

The solution that we recommend is to enable roaming profiles for Citrix users. If you don’t want to replicate the whole hive on your Citrix servers, you will need to install Citrix Profile Management and set GPO’s.   

You will also need to replicate the %APPDATA%\UpSlide Folder across your servers. This is handled by default with Roaming Profiles. 

Enable Citrix Profile Management

  • Open the Group Policy Editor and create a new GPO with the scope of your users. 

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  • Once created, edit your policy and go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates (ADMX Files) > Citrix Components > Profile Management and set the following policies: 
    • Enable Profile Management: Set to Active,
    • Path to User Store: Set to Active and specify the path to Roaming Profile location on your network,
    • Active write back Registry: Set to Active.
  • Once these settings are set, Citrix will replicate the integrality of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive across your server farm. You can push the configuration further and specify Citrix to replicate only specific keys. 

 Set up Citrix to replicate specific keys during logoff

  • Open your Group Policy and go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates (ADMX Files) > Profile Management > Registry > Inclusion List and specify these settings : 
    • Inclusion List: Add “Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\AddIns\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel”

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Deploy UpSlide only for certain users

UpSlide Registry Keys

UpSlide installer deploys registry keys for UpSlide to load at Office startup automatically. By default, these keys are located on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive. 

When using Office 64 bits on a computer running Windows 64 bits:  

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel :

  • Friendly name (String): A set of customized tools designed by UpSlide for Office
  • Description (String): UpSlide for Excel
  • LoadBehavior (DWord): 3
  • Manifest (String):C:\ProgramData\UpSlide\Binaries\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel.vsto|local

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint :

  • Friendly name (String): A set of customized tools designed by UpSlide for Office
  • Description (String): UpSlide for PowerPoint
  • LoadBehavior (DWord): 3
  • Manifest (String): C:\ProgramData\UpSlide\Binaries\Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint.vsto|local

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word :

  • Friendly name (String): A set of customized tools designed by UpSlide for Office
  • Description (String): UpSlide for Word
  • LoadBehavior (DWord): 3
  • Manifest (String): C:\ProgramData\UpSlide\Binaries\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word.vsto|local
Tip
When using Office 32 bits on a computer running Windows 64 bits (or a 32 bits machine), replace Software with Software\WOW6432Node.

If you don’t want to deploy UpSlide to All Users on your Citrix environment, these keys must be moved from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive to HKEY_CURRENT_USERS. 

This can be easily done using a GPO deployed only on UpSlide users.

UpSlide Users GPO Creation

This Group Policy will create the keys into the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive (User Configuration).

Create a new GPO and link it to UpSlide Users on the Group Policy Console. Go to User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry

Next, add new registry elements to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel :
    • Friendly name (String): A set of customized tools designed by UpSlide for Office
    • Description (String): UpSlide for Excel
    • LoadBehavior (DWord): 3
    • Manifest (String):C:\ProgramData\UpSlide\Binaries\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel.vsto|vstolocal
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint :
    • Friendly name (String): A set of customized tools designed by UpSlide for Office
    • Description (String): UpSlide for PowerPoint
    • LoadBehavior (DWord): 3
    • Manifest (String): C:\ProgramData\UpSlide\Binaries\Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint.vsto|vstolocal
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word:
    • Friendly name (String): A set of customized tools designed by UpSlide for Office
    • Description (String): UpSlide for Word
    • LoadBehavior (DWord): 3
    • Manifest (String):C:\ProgramData\UpSlide\Binaries\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word.vsto|vstolocal

Citrix Servers GPO Creation

This group policy will disable UpSlide by default on Citrix servers. 6 registry keys need to be deleted in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive (Computer Configuration). 

Create another GPO linked to Citrix Servers, and go to Computer Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry.

Set the GPO to delete the key named LoadBehavior on these registry paths: 

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word :
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word