Microsoft Group Policy is a huge part of any Microsoft based network and plays an important role in ensuring that configuration settings are consistent for all or groups of users, pushing software installations, or ensuring security is maintained for a wide range of Microsoft products in your organization. You probably also know that Microsoft Group Policy can be used for more than just Microsoft products and Citrix Files, the local application interface for Citrix ShareFile is no exception.
Citrix Files includes the .admx and .adml files needed to import the policy definitions into your Group Policy environment and can be used to manage a large array of Citrix Files settings for both the App and Citrix Files for Microsoft Outlook.
The Citrix Files custom .admx and .adml files are located at C:\Program Files\Citrix\Citrix Files\PolicyDefinitions
Copy the .admx file into the domain policy definitions folder located at \\YourDomain\SYSVOL\YourDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions
Copy the .adml file into the appropriate language folder within the domain policy definitions folder
Ex: \\YourDomain\SYSVOL\YourDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-US
Note: Replace “Your Domain” in UNC paths above with your fully qualified domain name
Once the custom .admx and .adml files have been copied to your domain’s sysvol folder you can open Group Policy Editor and find the polices in the following locations
- Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Citrix Files
- User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Citrix Files
The Citrix Files GPO contains the following settings:
| Computer Configuration | |
| Enable Application | Enables or Disables Citrix Files from running displaying any UI, or mounting any drives. |
| Enable Auto Check-Out | Citrix Files automatically check out Microsoft Office files when they are opened. Files are automatically checked in after they are closed |
| Enable On-Premise Connectors | Enables or Disables Network Share, SharePoint, and Documentum connectors in Citrix Files |
| Enable Personal Cloud Connectors | Enables or Disables Personal Cloud and Office 365 Connectors in Citrix Files |
| Enable Auto-Update | Enables or Disables automatic updates of Citrix Files to the latest version |
| Delete Cache on Exit | Enables or Disables the removal of file contents when the application exits |
| Cache Size | Sets how much disk space (in MB) to use for cached files. Minimum of 256MB / Maximum of 9999 MB |
| Cache Location | Configures the location of the file content cache. Default is in AppData\Local |
| Cache Mode | Select between Default, Immediate, or Queued cache mode |
| Maximum Log Size | Set how much disk space (in MB) that can be used for log files |
| Disable Tutorial | Enable or Disable the tutorial after initial sign-in |
| Enable Offline Access | Enable or Disable the ability for users to mark files and folder for offline access |
| Prefetch Metadata | Enable or Disable the preloading of filesystem structure in Citrix Files |
| User Configuration | |
| Account | Configures user account settings for Citrix Files |
| Enable Application | Enables or Disables Citrix Files from running displaying any UI, or mounting any drives. |
| Exclude from Upload | List file name extensions that are prevented from being saved to Citrix Files. |
| Mount Point 1-10 | Mounts a specific Citrix Files folder as a network drive |
If you are using Citrix ShareFile in your organization then you owe it to yourself and your users to look at auto-configuring Citrix Files with Group Policy. More information can be found here.