PCoIP Graphics Agent 2.11 for Windows Release Notes

Release Overview

PCoIP Graphics Agent 2.11 for Windows consolidates a number of new features as well as including product and security updates.

These release notes provide a summary of key feature additions, compatibility notes, resolved issues, and known issues for this release

What's New in This Release

Release 2.11 of the PCoIP Graphics Agent for Windows includes the following new features:

Improved installation error reporting

This release introduces complete detection of installation errors, enabling scripted upgrades to detect and troubleshoot installation problems.

Slower installations no longer fail

This release increases timeouts on installation steps, allowing installation to proceed even when individual steps take longer to complete successfully.

Improved installation flexibility

This release allows repeated installation steps after failure to enable a reboot-and-retry troubleshooting approach.

Shut down idle machines via Cloud Access Manager

When used in combination with Teradici Cloud Access Manager, this release introduces a facility to automatically shut down the agent machine when idle, enabling cost savings on cloud infrastructures.

Improved settings documentation

This release now clearly documents which PCoIP settings take effect immediately and which settings require a PCoIP disconnect and reconnect.

Important Notes and Requirements

  • PCoIP Graphics Agent 2.11 for Windows requires a license registration code (for Teradici Cloud Licensing), or a license activation code (for Local License Servers).If you are a new user, request a registratration code for a full evaluation.

  • New Cloud Access Software license purchases or renewals can only be activated using PCoIP Agent 2.11 or newer (any agent type).

  • When reporting issues to Teradici, run the SupportBundler.exe application and include the output it generates.

Release Downloads

Release History

Version/Build Date Description
2.11 January 2018 Updated Release

Compatibility

For compatibility details, refer to the Administrators' Guide.

Known Issues

Wacom tablet cursor fails to highlight some UI elements

When moving the Wacom pen across the desktop some program controls do not highlight properly. (68947)

Workaround: Remove long right mouse click from the pen settings in Windows.

Custom Certificate using Microsoft Software Key Storage Provider cannot be loaded by PCoIP Agent

Certificates created with Microsoft Software Key Storage Provider cannot be loaded by the PCoIP Agent and prevent the PCoIP Agent from starting, which prevents any PCoIP sessions from being established. (68665)

Workaround: Use Microsoft RSA Channel Cryptographic Provider as the cryptography provider and put the minimum key size to 3072 or higher.

PCoIP validate license reports unsupported version of Trusted Storage

When executing pcoip-validate-license on either Windows or Linux an error is reported stating that This version of trusted storage is not supported. (66075)

Workaround:

  1. Delete the contents of C:\ProgramData\Teradici\PCoIPAgent\licensing\5 in Windows, or /var/lib/pcoip-agent/licensing/5 (requires root permissions) in Linux

  2. Restart the appropriate agent service (PCoIP Graphics Agent or PCoIP Standard Agent on Windows, or pcoip-agent on Linux)

  3. If using Teradici Cloud Licensing (not using a local license server), re-register the host.

Licensing can fail if Windows WMI infrastructure is impaired

Windows infrastructure failures can prevent PCoIP agent licensing to be acquired. If the PCoIP agent is not licensed, the user will not be able to connect to the remote machine. (65660)

Workaround: Rebooting the machine may resolve the WMI impairment, enabling PCoIP licensing to be successfully acquired.

Changing window resolution while running a full-screen application may cause issues

Some applications may not be able to handle resolution change when they are running in full-screen mode. (63089)

Workaround: Exit affected applications before changing desktop resolution.

Initial PCoIP connection on Azure may result in blank display

With PCoIP Graphics Agent on Azure, display may not be properly initialized on the first connection. You may get a blank display. (62483)

Workaround: Disconnect and reconnect, or resize your PCoIP client window.

Microsoft Surface Pro display resolution not recognized properly

When using a Microsoft Surface Pro and connecting to a PCoIP Graphics Agent using NVIDIA GRID, there can be a mismatch between the resultant resolution and the display. This can appear as a smaller desktop display surrounded by black borders. (61975)

User may be required to log on twice

Rarely, a user may be presented with the lock screen when connecting via PCoIP. (61632)

Workaround: Authenticate a second time to gain access to the desktop.

GRID licensing fails after disabling then enabling GRID capture.

GRID licensing fails after disabling NVFBEnable -disable then enabling NVFBEnable -enabling GRID capture, resulting in limitations in the number of monitors and resolutions available. (61247)

Workaround: Teradici has included, as part of the PCoIP Graphics Agent install, a reset script to reset the graphics driver to a good state:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Teradici\PCoIP Agent\GRID\reset_grid.bat

You'll need administrator permissions to run the script. Before running the script, close all other applications, especially those that utilize the GPU. Teradici also recommends you disconnect and reconnect once the script has completed.

GRID licensing not enabled after re-allocating an Azure VM with GRID 4.2 (369.95) driver

After starting (re-allocating) a previously stopped (de-allocated) VM in Azure, GRID licensing is not always enabled following VM boot up. This results in PCoIP sessions being limited to a single screen with a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 pixels. (61088)

Workaround: Restart Windows.

Screens may not wake up automatically when system has been sleeping

Occasionally, when logging into a PCoIP Graphics Agent instance, you may be presented with black screens at a lower than native resolution (this can be inferred by a larger-than-usual cursor). This only happens when the machine has been left unattended for an extended period. (59890)

Workaround: Click the mouse or press a key on the keyboard to wake up displays. This may take several seconds. Failing this, reconnect to solve the problem.

Cursor size larger than 64x64 pixels does not display correctly

Display of cursors larger than 64x64 pixels can become truncated and can terminate the PCoIP session. (57721)

PCoIP Graphics Agent upgrade after disconnecting may not work on mapped drives

If you manually download a new version of the PCoIP Graphics Agent and run it from a mapped drive from within a PCoIP session, the update will show an error and plan to continue the update offline while the user is disconnected. If the software installer is located on a mapped drive that the local system account does not have access to, the update will fail. (55408)

Workaround: Copy the installer to a local drive first.

Multiple display issue occurs when NVIDIA GRID is not properly licensed

If NVIDIA GRID is not properly licensed, connecting with multiple displays to a remote machine running PCoIP Graphics Agent may result in only one display being optimized with GRID performance. The other displays will work but will not be optimized with GRID, resulting in lower frames per second. (52157)

Workaround: Ensure NVIDIA GRID GPU is properly licensed.

Duplicated screens in-session

If an application sets the displays to 'duplicate', the user will be unable to restore the configuration to extend across multiple displays due to the controls being disabled. (51912)

Workaround: Open the Projector Menu by pressing Windows key + P, then select Extend.

NVIDIA GPUs do not support Windows Sleep and Hibernate system power states (S3/S4 respectively)

A small number of occurrences have been reported where Windows will crash (resulting in BSOD) when resuming from Windows Hibernate, when installed on a virtual machine equipped with NVIDIA GPUs. For details on sleep and hibernate behaviors supported by NVIDIA, contact and visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/support.html. (51788)

Workaround: Avoid sleeping and hibernating PCoIP Graphics Agent that is configured to utilize NVIDIA GPUs.

Cursor pointer shadow is not supported with Windows 10

'Enable pointer shadow' is not supported in a PCoIP session to Windows 10 PCoIP Graphics Agent. (45095)

Performance counters do not appear to collect data

In some cases, even though the performance counters have been installed correctly, it may appear as if they are not collecting data. This occurs due to the fact that the user may have opened the 64-bit version of the performance monitor, while Teradici's performance counters are 32-bit only. As the counters cannot be loaded into the 64-bit version, Windows will disable data collection. A corresponding message in the Windows Event Log should indicate this as well. (45092)

Workaround: To solve the issue:

  1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
  2. Type the following command, and then press Enter: mmc.exe /32 perfmon.msc. This command runs System Monitor in 32-bit emulation mode.
  3. Use System Monitor to determine whether the performance counter object is available.

Mouse cursor is invisible on Windows 10 when no mouse is attached to physical machine

When using Windows 10 with PCoIP Graphics Agent for Windows installed on a physical workstation that does not have an attached mouse, the system will assume it is running in tablet mode and will make the mouse cursor invisible. Note that this limitation does not exist on a virtualized machine as the hypervisor directly presents a virtualized mouse driver. (43806)

Workaround: To resolve this issue, you must install a virtual mouse driver that tells the system to always render the mouse cursor visible. Teradici recommends [TabletPro|https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/tablet-pro/9nblggh1rqvc].

System volume set to maximum after agent upgrade

When upgrading to the latest PCoIP agent, audio volume is automatically set to maximum. (42226)

Workaround: Manually set the audio to the desired volume after upgrading. Once set manually, the audio volume is maintained. The change in audio volume only happens at upgrade.

GRID capture fails with K520 card using VBIOS 80.04.ED.00.07

NVIDIA K520 cards with Video BIOS (VBIOS) 80.04.ED.00.07 are known to cause a GRID capture failure resulting in the PCoIP Graphics Agent falling back to BitBLT capture. The VBIOS version currently installed on the NVIDIA card can be found via the NVIDIA Control Panel under System Information. (42099)

Workaround: Update the VBIOS on the K520 card to the latest version. VBIOS 80.04.D4.00.03 is known to work.

Audio mapping issues with some applications

When a PCoIP session is established, the default playback and recording devices are switched to the Teradici Virtual Audio Driver, and restored to their previous values upon session teardown. Some applications are willing to continually follow the default audio devices, for instance, Windows Media Player, VLC, and Chrome. Meanwhile, others are configured at install time to latch onto specific devices, for example, Skype. A PCoIP session running an application that does not specifically use the default audio devices will not present audio to its user. (41323)

PCoIP agent fails to connect when host has multiple NICs

When a host computer has more than one network adapter, the system must be configured to inform which adapter to use for inbound PCoIP connections. You can do so by populating the PCoIPConnectionAddress registry value with your desired network interface.

Some software applications such as Npcap can create a virtual network adapter that will present additional Ethernet adapters. These configurations also require populating the PCoIPConnectionAddress registry value with your desired network interface. (40825)

Workaround: In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Teradici\PCoIPAgent, set the PCoIPConnectionAddress registry value:

"PCoIPConnectionAddress"="a.b.c.d"

Where a.b.c.d is your desired network interface). The type of the reg key is a string value: REG_SZ.

Agents do not support Windows Filter Keys

PCoIP Graphics and Standard Agent do not support Windows Filter Keys. Keystroke rate and repeat key characters will be inserted into the system directly based on keyboard events without filtering. (23224)

Agent installation may take a long time

Teradici installs Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 C/C++ runtimes as part of the agent installation. Runtime installers create a system restore point which, on systems such as Windows 8, can take over 15 minutes. If the installer appears to be stalled when installing the C/C++ runtimes, it may simply be the runtime installers creating a system restore point. (22702)

Mouse pointer shadow is missing

The mouse pointer shadow, which gives the mouse pointer a 3D appearance, is not available during PCoIP sessions. (1870)

Resolved Issues

PCoIP Agent installation requires the ability to run powershell scripts

The Powershell execution policy for both 64 and 32-bit versions of Powershell must be set to either AllSigned or RemoteSigned.1. Set ExecutionPolicy for 32-bit powershell in the host:

  • For 32-bit PowerShell, set this policy to AllSigned or RemoteSigned: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\ExecutionPolicy
  • For 64-bit PowerShell, set this policy to AllSigned or RemoteSigned: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\ExecutionPolicy (67724)

Virtual USB Hub uninstallation errors can now be corrected by re-installing the PCoIP Agent

As of PCoIP Agent 2.11 the installation process will automatically uninstall partially uninstalled virtual USB hub software. (61172)