Configuring the Citrix virtual channel allow list policy

Citrix ICA policies include an option to control if applications are allowed to allocate a virtual channel.  The VDI Zoom Meeting client requires opening a virtual channel. Zoom uses the virtual channel to connect to the Zoom VDI Plugin on the thin client to provide the optimized meeting and Zoom Phone experience.  

Starting with Citrix VDA 2109, the default virtual channel allow list policy changed from “Enabled” to “Disabled”. This occurs even if you are upgrading an existing installation where you did not change the policy. Additional steps are required to allow Zoom to open a virtual channel.

This article covers:  

• How to change the virtual channel allow list policy to disabled
• How to add values for Zoom VDI client to the virtual channel allow list

Prerequisites for configuring the Citrix virtual channel allow list policy for Zoom

The following article assumes the user is familiar with Citrix Studio and has both access and permissions to make the required changes. 

How to change the virtual channel allow list policy to disabled

The easiest way to ensure that Zoom can create and open a virtual channel to connect to the VDI plugin, is to set the policy for the virtual channel allow list to “disabled”. If the policy state was changed to “enabled” after updating to release 2109, you can edit the policy to return the status to “disabled”.

You will need to open Citrix Studio and navigate to the ICA policies section. Find the location to update the virtual channel allow list policy and change the policy to “disabled”.

Note: If your virtual desktops allow end users to download and install software themselves, we recommend configuring the virtual channel allow list to “disabled”. Unless the installation default for “all users” is selected, creating a policy exception based on the application path for all users (provided below) will not apply to individual users.

How to add values for the Zoom VDI client to the virtual channel allow list

If you prefer to keep the virtual channel allow list policy configured for “enabled”, you will need to add the Zoom application to the list of applications that are allowed.

1. From Citrix Studio, add the values for Zoom VDI client installation into the virtual channel allow list policy by copying each channel, .exe file below:

• ZOOMHDX,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\ZoomVDITool.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\ZoomVDITool.exe
• ZOOMHDC,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMHDA,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMHDS,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMHDV,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMPHX,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMCCX,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMCCA,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe
• ZOOMAUS,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\ZoomVDITool.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\Zoom.exe,C:\Program Files\ZoomVDI\bin\ZoomVDITool.exe

1. (Optional) Replace the default installation path C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVDI\bin\ with the path to the Zoom.exe file in your environment.
2. Restart the VDA environment for the changes to take effect.
   

Please refer to the virtual channel allow list policy for more information.