Citrix, a Cloud Software Group company, today announced Citrix UniconOS™ dual boot, a new endpoint resiliency capability designed to help organizations recover access to work in minutes — without spare hardware, central reimaging or prolonged business downtime. Available now as part of Citrix UniconOS Release 7 2607, dual boot turns every compatible Windows endpoint into its own recovery device: an isolated, hardened Citrix UniconOS environment that runs alongside Windows on the device and can reconnect users to their applications via Citrix® DaaS and Citrix SecurAccess™ with Chrome Enterprise in minutes.

Ransomware, failed updates, operating system corruption and misconfigurations can turn Windows endpoint failures into enterprise-wide business disruptions. In healthcare, financial services and critical infrastructure, outages can interrupt core workflows, put revenue and service-level agreements at risk, increase operational or patient-safety risks, and complicate compliance with regulations and standards such as the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Many recovery approaches rely on reimaging workflows, central recovery services or standby devices. These methods can be manual, centralized, hardware-dependent and difficult to test at scale before a disruption occurs. When large fleets go offline, recovery can become an intensive, multisite IT effort while users wait for devices to be reimaged, replaced or delivered.

Citrix UniconOS dual boot changes that model by putting recovery directly on the endpoint. Its unique dual boot architecture places a second, hardened Citrix UniconOS environment alongside Windows on the same physical disk in a separate partition isolated through secure boot and independent of the Windows file system. If Windows is compromised, corrupted or unavailable, the user selects Citrix UniconOS from the boot menu, signs in and reconnects to the applications they need through Citrix DaaS and Citrix SecurAccess with Chrome Enterprise, while security teams continue investigating the affected Windows environment.

“For organizations in healthcare, financial services, retail, public sector and other industries where downtime has material business impact, endpoint resilience has become a boardroom issue,” said Philipp Benkler, vice president and general manager of Unicon at Citrix. “Citrix UniconOS dual boot is designed to help customers keep work moving when Windows is unavailable, giving users a faster path back to the applications they need through the Citrix platform. By turning existing Windows endpoints into recovery-ready devices, Citrix helps organizations strengthen continuity, reduce operational disruption and maintain productivity when it matters most.”

Unlike many competitive solutions, Citrix UniconOS dual boot is designed to do more than bring an endpoint back online. By pairing an isolated recovery OS with Citrix DaaS for application and desktop delivery, Citrix SecurAccess with Chrome Enterprise for zero-trust access, and Citrix UniconOS Management for fleet-wide control, Citrix’s holistic platform approach helps organizations restore access to work — not just recover the device.

Citrix is the only vendor that combines an immutable endpoint recovery operating system on the endpoint with integrated DaaS application delivery, a secure zero trust network access enterprise browser and cloud-based fleet management in one integrated solution.

Citrix UniconOS dual boot simplifies and accelerates recovery across endpoint fleets

Citrix UniconOS dual boot helps organizations maintain access to critical applications when Windows is unavailable because of ransomware, failed patches or updates, misconfigurations or other disruptions. Each Windows PC can become its own business continuity and disaster recovery device. With recovery initiated through a single reboot by each user, the process can scale with the size of the fleet.

IT teams can deploy Citrix UniconOS, formerly eLux®, alongside Windows on existing devices, allowing organizations to use their existing Windows fleet as the recovery fleet without adding a second pool of laptops or separate hardware, allowing organizations to reduce their dependence on spare hardware, disaster recovery cabinets and central imaging services.

Key capabilities include:

  • Secure boot from end-to-end: The recovery operating systems is signed from shim to kernel, providing provenance that security teams can present to auditors and regulators.
  • Automatic enrollment in Citrix UniconOS™ Management: Endpoints automatically enroll in Citrix UniconOS Management, formerly Scout, where administrators can centrally define the default operating system, boot delay and fallback policy and monitor fleet health.
  • Fleetwide control from one management plane: Citrix UniconOS Management provides centralized control over boot behavior and recovery policies and monitors Citrix UniconOS health across the fleet, allowing IT teams to shift from manual device triage to policy-based management and monitoring.

For organizations that need additional desktop or application capacity during a disruption, Citrix Platform Flex can further support continuity by helping IT teams scale resources as demand changes.

Together, these capabilities help organizations turn endpoint recovery into business continuity, so work can keep moving when every minute matters.

Availability

Citrix UniconOS dual boot is now available with Citrix UniconOS Release 7 2607.

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About Citrix

Citrix sets the governance for how enterprise applications are secured, accessed, and experienced. As applications evolve, data migrates, devices multiply, and AI transforms how work gets done, today’s workforce is more complex than ever — and enterprises need solutions that ensure work flows seamlessly. Founded on pioneering secure remote access, Citrix has evolved into a platform that supports the full application value chain — from secure desktop, application delivery, and enterprise browser to zero-trust access, network intelligence, and endpoint control.

For over 35 years, Citrix has helped enterprises navigate every major shift — from client-server to persona-based computing, from office-based to remote work, on-premises data centers to hybrid and multi-cloud, and now the proliferation of AI in the workplace. As technology continues to rapidly evolve, Citrix delivers the reliable, resilient foundation that customers in the most mission-critical industries — such as healthcare, financial services and government — demand to operate securely at scale. Learn more at www.citrix.com.

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