How to Publish the Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) with Specific Drives, Specific Folders, or URL
The following Citrix support article teaches you how to publish the Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) with specific drives and folders. This is a very interesting article as it is one of the most requested tips and there have been many articles about this subject over the years. In fact, in my Methodology in a Box 1.0 eBook I documented how to publish the Windows Explorer only to remove it in version 2.0 as Citrix Support changed their stance on how we should publish explorer.exe. They did this because of the many problems publishing exploer.exe directly might bring as documented in the Microsoft Q832427
"When you use Citrix MetaFrame XP to connect to a Microsoft Windows 2000-based Terminal server, and Explorer.exe is configured to run as a published application in Citrix, when a folder is renamed on a redirected client drive in the Citrix MetaFrame XP session, the folder name does not update dynamically. The folder still displays the old name of the renamed folder. Note We do not recommend running Explorer.exe as a published application because the published Explorer.exe application runs as a separate process that has restricted access to the desktop."
The method of copying and renaming the EXPLORER.EXE to, for example, EXPLORER2.EXE is a widely used but not suggested or supported method by the Citrix Development Team. When doing this, there may be other side effects like session hangs or sessions getting slow when launching several instances of the renamed EXPLORER2.EXE. These issues are the result of internal EXPLORER.EXE dependencies that cannot be resolved without rewriting large parts of the kernel OS.
Citrix recommends you publish IEXPLORE.EXE, with the -e parameter, to provide the functionality of a published EXPLORER.EXE instead.
The following procedure details how to publish the Windows Explorer (expolorer.exe) with arguments:
Publish an application with a command line of:
<path to IEXPLORE.EXE>\IEXPLORE.EXE [–e <Initial drive/directory>|<URL>] (specify %windir% for the working directory).
Example:
“c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -e c:\
-OR-
“c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" http://www.dabcc.com
Internet Explorer 7 Syntax:
If you have Internet Explorer 7 installed, use the following command instead:
%windir%\ie7\iexplore.exe [–e <Initial drive/directory>|<URL>]
The %windir%\ie7\ directory is hidden by default. You must type in the path described above manually.
To learn more and to download the above Citrix support article please visit: CTX922603 - How to Publish Explorer.exe with Specific Drives, Specific Folders, or URL
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