Automatically open ica file in Chrome and Edge – 3 easy fixes

If you often work with Citrix sessions, you will probably recognize the following problem to open ica files. As soon as you click on an ICA file from the browser, Edge or Chrome, the file will be downloaded to your Downloads folder. Or you will get a popup window in which you have to specify the location of the ICA file. To log into the Citrix session, you then need to go to the Downloads folder and double-click to open ICA file. That is quite cumbersome!

In Edge and Chrome, you can automatically open ICA files with Citrix Workspace. This not only saves you time, but it also saves a mountain of ICA files in your Downloads folder!

Automatically open Citrix ICA files in Chrome

It often happens that Chome downloads the ICA files, instead of opening them directly. This is annoying because you have to click extra mouse clicks and have to empty your Downloads folder afterward. I regularly had hundreds of ICA files in my Downloads folder.
To automatically open ICA files in Chrome with Citrix Workspace App, follow these steps

1. First, make sure you disable the Ask where to save each file before downloading option. You can find this option in Chrome – Settings – Advanced – Downloads. But you can also type chrome://settings/downloads in the Address Bar to directly go to the settings page.
   
2. Next, go to the Citrix portal where you start the Citrix session (thus where you get the ICA file)
3. In the Downloads bar at the bottom, right click the ICA file download, and choose Always open files of this type.
   
4. Done! Citrix ICA files should now automatically open in Receiver of Workspace App while working in Chrome

Automatically open Citrix ICA files in Edge

Unlike Chrome, opening ICA files in Edge often works well. As soon as I try to download and open ICA file, a popup appears:

If ICA files are nevertheless downloaded in Edge and don’t open automatically, do the following:

1. Navigate to the Citrix portal where the ICA file is downloaded.
2. Right click on the file in the Downloads box, and choose Always open files of this type
   

Link ica file extension to Citrix Workspace

If the Citrix Workspace or Connection Manager does not start automatically when double-clicking on the ICA file, then a link is missing between the ICA file and the Citrix application. In Windows 10 you can solve this open ica file problem as follows:

1. Click Start -> Type “file type” > click Choose Default apps by file type
2. In the Settings window Choose Default apps by file type, scroll down under Name and find the .ica file type
3. Ensure that the current default is set to Citrix Connection Manager. If not, click Change program and choose Citrix Connection Manager. This will ensure the next time you open ICA files, Windows will use the Citrix Connection manager
   NOTE: Connection Manager is the wfcrun32 file located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix. On older operation systems, this file is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\ICA Client

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