Solving the XenApp CtxMTHost.exe Error

Once upon a time in Citrix, I was faced with an error so frustrating, that I thought I’d share the fix and method I used to resolve it.
Basically, each time a XenApp published application was launched via StoreFront, a CtxMTHost.exe error displayed: “Windows cannot find ‘CtxMTHost.exe’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.”

The error itself didn’t prevent launching or use of the app, but was just mere annoying and overall bad user experience.
The XenApp servers were running on a Windows 2012 R2 operating system, with VDA 7.6.300 installed.
CtxMTHost.exe is a Citrix file known as Citrix Multi-Touch Host that handles multi-touch gestures, and is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\System32.

To find what was triggering the error, I used Process Monitor and found that at application launch a QueryOpen operation resulted in NAME NOT FOUND for path C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CtxMTHost.exe

After placing a copy of CtxMtHost.exe into C:\Windows\SysWOW64 the errors stopped!
The issue wasn’t Citrix related, but merely how this particular Windows system image was setup, thus preventing the install of binary files to the SysWOW64 directory. Interestingly, when a 32-bit program is run on a 64-bit Windows, a 32-bit emulator is invoked to handle the 32-bit program, which was failing. The table below provides the location of these folders:

Frankly, this issue was a good reminder on how some monitoring tools such as Process Monitor can come to good use and aid, and how it’s not always Citrix.

About Anexinet

Anexinet is a leading professional consulting and services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions around digital disruption, analytics (and big data), and hybrid and private cloud strategies. Anexinet brings insight into how technology will impact how business decisions will be made and how our clients interact with their customers in the future.
Josue Molina, [email protected]