Installing Edge Chromium browser on a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1909 application server with VDA installed causes the browser to freeze when launched

Problem

You’ve decided to install the new Microsoft Edge Chromium browser onto a Citrix application server:

… but quickly notice that upon a successful install, launching the browser displays a frozen window that is not responsive:

Reviewing the processes in Task Manager will reveal that multiple process of the browser has consumed all of the CPU:

Attempting to uninstall the browser also freezes because the uninstall process launches the Edge Chromium browser:

Trying other versions as offered in the following URL does not make a difference:

Microsoft Edge Insider Channels
https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/download

Solution

What apparently causes the Microsoft Edge Chromium browser to freeze are the Citrix API hooks that interacts with the MSEdge.exe process, which reminds me of an old issue I came across back in 2014 when white block artifacts would be displayed in a Citrix session: http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2014/02/white-block-artifacts-displayed-in.html

To correct the issue, we’ll need to add the MSEdge.exe process to the exclusion list on the Citrix application server. Begin by navigating to the following registry path on the host with the VDA agent installed:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxUvi

Open the UviProcessExcludes REG_SZ key and you’ll see the following default processes that are excluded:

LsaIso.exe;BioIso.exe;FsIso.exe;sppsvc.exe;vmsp.exe;

Add the following to the list:

msedge.exe;

With the exclusion updated, proceed to restart the server and Edge Chromium should now launch properly: