Deployment of WebTools in a Citrix or Terminal Server environment

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Environment: onsite
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When installing SuperOffice in a Citrix environment, consider this to avoid problems when the customer starts to use our software.

WebTools on Citrix or Terminal server

Ask: Will the customer deploy WebTools to ALL users running in the Citrix/Terminal Server environment?

If all users want WebTools, you can skip reading this document.

Note

We’re not using the Shadow key system in the registry anymore.

When deploying MailLink in a Terminal Server/Citrix environment, we use a registry mechanism called Registry propagation built into Microsoft Office.

Note

Registry propagation does not work for Office 2013 in SuperOffice versions below 7.5.

The requirement to get the ribbon components, a user needs to have the AddIns registered in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive of the registry. Since we don’t know who will log in (and new users can be added later on), there is no way for us to write anything to these areas in the registry when we install SuperOffice.

The way we’ve solved this is to register the necessary keys under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive in the registry (64-bit machine).

These keys contain the values that will be copied to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys for a user when he/she starts Microsoft Office programs. These keys will be written AFTER any login scripts have been run, so it is impossible to remove them using such a script.

The problem with the above solution is that for every user that logs in and starts any of the Microsoft Office programs, these registry keys will be copied to their local HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive and they will get a question asking them if they want to install SuperOffice Ribbons/MailLink.

The correct way to support a scenario where some users/groups should NOT get the MailLink in Outlook is to remove the following registry keys:

32-bit environment:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\User Settings\SuperOfficeOfficeRibbons
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\User Settings\SuperOfficeRibbons

64-bit environment:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\User Settings\SuperOfficeOfficeRibbons
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\User Settings\SuperOfficeRibbons

These keys are for Office 2016, for other Office versions change the path accordingly.

Registry scripts to import

Use the following Registry script to deploy MailLink to those users/groups that should receive these components. Remember to substitute the paths with correct filenames for your installation!

The following file is to get MailLink deployed on SuperOffice 8.0 and newer:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\SuperOfficeRibbon-Outlook]
@=""
"CommandLineSafe"=dword:00000001
"Description"="A link between Outlook and SuperOffice for storing mails and attachments"
"FriendlyName"="SuperOffice Ribbon"
"LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003
"Manifest"="C:\Program Files\SuperOffice\SuperOffice Windows\MailLink\SuperOfficeRibbon-Outlook.vsto|vstolocal"

Web Extensions deployment

Installation on Citrix-server

  1. Install SuperOffice.Web.Tools.exe in 'Install mode'

  2. To avoid all users to run Web Extensions remove 'SuperOffice CRM.Web Extensions' (TrayApp) from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

  3. Make sure users who should run Web Extensions get the Web Extensions shortcut in: C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Upgrade of Web Extensions on Citrix-server

After the upgrade of WebTools on the server remember to remove Web Extensions startup from  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup again.

How to change default MailLink language is described in this article. Another way is described in this FAQ.