• Manage & Optimize
• VDI & DaaS
• Mar 18, 2025

As of March 18, 2025, this feature is now GA!

In today’s fast-paced business world, every second counts. For organizations leveraging virtual apps and desktops, user productivity starts with logging in. Yet slow logon times lasting up to several minutes have become a major frustration for employees and a disruption to workflows.

At Citrix, we understand this challenge. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Session Remote Start—now available in public tech preview. With Session Remote Start, we’re tackling the logon bottleneck head-on, empowering businesses with a seamless, efficient, and faster way to access their virtualized resources.

The cost of slow logins

Logon delays aren’t just an inconvenience—they’re a daily frustration that impacts both employees and IT teams. They cause:

• Lost time: Employees spend critical minutes—sometimes up to several minutes—staring at loading screens instead of starting their tasks.
• Frustrated users: Waiting for resources erodes user satisfaction and confidence in IT systems.
• Increased IT burden: Prolonged logons lead to more help desk tickets and troubleshooting, stretching IT teams thin.

The root of the problem lies in processes like Windows initialization, user personalization, GPOs, security agents, and many more, which collectively cause delays. While many organizations have tried workarounds, these approaches often increase complexity and cost without fully solving the issue.

Session Remote Start eliminates the need for these temporary fixes, delivering a seamless, fast login experience that gets users to work in seconds.

How Session Remote Start works

Session Remote Start modernizes and simplifies how logins are managed using the new APIs for enumeration, login, and logoff. Here’s how it redefines the logon process:

• Just-in-time launch: Session Remote Start uses external triggers like a badge scan at the office or a click of a button on a mobile app to pre-launch user sessions (and login!) before they reach their workstation. This ensures resources are ready when employees arrive at their desks.
• Secure disconnect and reconnect: The service securely logs into the user’s sessions and immediately disconnects them after login, allowing users to reconnect instantly when they launch their resources via the Citrix Workspace app or HTML 5.
• Efficient resource utilization: Session Remote Start integrates with our power management APIs and helps to optimize cost by turning on VDAs only when needed.

With our newest APIs, you’re in control. Your team can create customized scripts to call and run the APIs, in a way that works for your environment and your end users. 

By preempting logon delays, Session Remote Start helps businesses deliver a modern, rapid login experience that boosts user satisfaction and productivity. You can learn more about Session Remote Start in our product documentation. 

Why Session Remote Start is a must-have solution

Session Remote Start revolutionizes virtual session logons by addressing one of the most persistent challenges businesses face. With this solution, employees gain near-instant access to their sessions, significantly enhancing their overall experience. By enabling seamless pre-launching of sessions, it not only reduces downtime but also improves the pace of daily operations. Additionally, Session Remote Start optimizes resource utilization, eliminating unnecessary overhead without compromising performance. 

“With Session Remote Start, session launch times dropped from 60 seconds to under 10 seconds, saving 50 seconds per session. Applied across 2,000 users over a year, this results in saving thousands of hours, revolutionizing productivity and transforming operational efficiency.”

— IT Director, Global Enterprise

Session Remote Start is particularly powerful for single-session and persistent VDIs. If you are running persistent machines in the public cloud, those are expensive to keep running. But if you turn them off, your users have to wait a long time to boot. Session Remote Start lets you have the best of both worlds – reducing your ecological footprint and compute costs while keeping fast logins.

Experience the future with Session Remote Start

The public tech preview of Session Remote Start is your chance to reimagine how your end users experience their virtual apps and desktops. Reach out to your Citrix account team today to explore how Session Remote Start can transform your environment and employee experience. This is more than just a preview—it’s an invitation to experience the fast, reliable, and efficient logons. Don’t wait; take the first step toward a seamless login experience with Citrix Session Remote Start.

Disclaimer: This publication may include references to the planned testing, release and/or availability of Cloud Software Group, Inc. products and services. The information provided in this publication is for informational purposes only, its contents are subject to change without notice, and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for products remains at the sole discretion of Cloud Software Group, Inc.

Manjunatha Gali

Manjunatha Gali is the Sr. Technical Marketing Manager in the Citrix Ready program, where he is focused on helping technology and developer partners to build the future of work solutions by integrating them with Citrix. Follow him at @galimanju on Twitter