Citrix and Amazon AWS Workspace App: Issues with Intel XE graphics chips

[German]Brief information for administrators of Amazon AWS and Citrix Workspace app environments. A reader pointed out to me that there are probably issues with the Workspace app when Intel XE graphics chips are used. The problem has been known since 2021, as I have seen, but it seems it's back in 2024. However, there is a workaround to fix these issues caused by graphics hardware acceleration. Below are a few information in the blog – maybe it will help one or the other administrator.

User report with an error description

Christian contacted me by e-mail last week to inform me about his observations in the Citrix Workspace app environment (thanks for that). If the Citrix client (Workspace app) is operated on hardware with Intel XE graphics chips, problems can occur. Christian has encountered these cases several times in his corporate environment.

The error pattern: The applications open, but are extremely jerky. In particular, moving windows in the virtualized remote environment hardly works. However, this only occurs with published applications (workspace apps), not with desktops. According to Christian, clients with Intel Iris Xe graphics chips (e.g. processor i5 1235U) are affected.

Further reports on the Internet

The reader pointed out to me that other users had also noticed these issues. On reddit.com there is the very old post from 2021, titled Citrix Virtual Apps und Desktop: Verzögerung und Lag beim Verschieben von Fenstern (Grafikproblem), that is written in German. The post describes a similar behavior, a lagging client. There, "DELL Latitude 5520" notebooks (incl. Iris Xe Graphics) and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop were used, and there are performance issues. The person concerned writes that there is a significant delay or lag when moving other windows in Citrix Workspace app.

An even older reddit.com post Citrix Workspace App auf Intel Iris Xe (also in German) from 2020 also picks up on this issue. Similar messages can be found in the Intel forum (see Iris Xe and AWS Workspaces from 2021 with solution here, whereby this case refers to Amazon Web Services, AWS, and their Workspace app).

Workaround: Deactivate HW graphics acceleration

In both scenarios with AWS and Citrix Workspace apps, it helps to disable hardware acceleration for graphics. Christian wrote that he achieves this with the Citrix policy Hardware acceleration for graphics.

The use of hardware acceleration for graphics can also be achieved via a registry  entry. To do this, simply start an administrative instance of the registry editor and navigate to the following key:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Citrix\ICA Client\Graphics Engine

and add the 32-bit DWORD value HWacceleration there if required. The value should then be set to 0x0 (see also). There is this article on Citrix.

Also works with Amazon's AWS

If you use Amazon's AWS Workspace app and are affected by the problem, you can find some information about the registry key here. However, the Intel response states that the graphics driver 30.0.100.9684 can provide a remedy. I have just had a look, the current version of the graphics driver is 6th-13th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor Graphics and related Intel Atom®, Pentium® and Celeron® processors.

A "recurring" error?

But what amazes me is the fact that the problem has been known for years and the question arises whether a fix in the form of a driver update from Intel has worked in the meantime? I had brief contact with Christian about this and he wrote:

Excitingly, the error seems to have come back due to an update. At least that was the case with our last case.

The user downloaded the latest drivers for her notebook via Lenovo Update and then the problem mentioned below occurred.

Has anyone else experienced these problems recently?