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How To Deal With Softgrids SFTDCC.exe On Terminal Server Systems

Tuesday, 06 March 2007 by Michel Roth

I ran into this rather nasty issue some time ago. Since then, I've heard several people complain about this. The problem: when you install the Softgrid Terminal Server Client, the client adds an entry with SFTDCC.EXE (SoftGrid Client Desktop Configuration Controller) to the UserInit key which is run every time a user logs on to this system. There's two problems that can arise from this.

1: If you try to close down a Softgrid application which was accessed via a Citrix Published application, you get a 30-second delay when trying to log off. This is because SFTDCC.EXE waits 30 second after a SoftGrid Enabled Application exits before it shuts down therefore temporarily holding the session open. The SFTDCC.EXE does this to improve the launch time of subsequent launches of SoftGrid Enabled Applications. Nice for perhaps a workstation but not for a Citrix Published Application or a Longhorn Remote Program for that matter. Thankfully, you can control the 30 second default delay in the following registry key: HKLM\Software\Softricity\SoftGrid Client\CurrentVersion\Configuration with the DCCSeamlessTimeout value. Set it to zero for no delay. Read more about this value here.

2. If you launch a non-Softgrid published application to a server that does have the Softgrid (Terminal Services) client installed, SFTDCC.exe is launched by UserInit and is therefore not monitored as a legit child process of the original published application. This "orphan" therefore results in the infamous "Unable to log off Citrix Server. Please log off manually" message when you try to log off. To combat this bevaviour, you should add SFTDCC.exe to the process exclusion list in the "LogOffCheckSysModules" value of HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI. Read more in CTX112370. You might want add SFTDCC.exe to your LogOffCheckSysModules with an .ADM template. You can use the TrueControlTemplate for this (many more must-have Citrix and Terminal Server settings are in here).