Background Information

By default, Google Earth is configured with some fairly graphics intensive options. It might look great on a desktop, but it means performance can often be poor on a Citrix XenDesktop, XenApp or other Remote Desktop / virtualised environment.

In addition, there are a few options that can improve start-up performance and user experience. Please test these settings before deploying to your own environment and note that none of these are enforced settings, users may change them if they wish.

These were tested on version 7.1.2.2041 (Current as of April 2014) and I recommend applying with Group Policy Preferences

Registry Settings

HKCU\Software\Google\Google Earth Plus
REG_SZ : AlwaysUseExternalBrowser : true
REG_SZ : enableTips : false
REG_DWORD : kmlErrorHandling : 0
REG_SZ : useHttpsForGoogle2 : false

Software\Google\Google Earth Plus\Render
REG_DWORD : TextureColors : 0
REG_DWORD : AnisotropicFiltering_6_2 : 0
REG_SZ : HighQualityTerrain : false
REG_SZ : 3DImageryEnabled : false
REG_DWORD : RenderingApi : 0
REG_SZ : DisableAdvancedFeatures : true
REG_DWORD : Antialiasing : 0
REG_SZ : Atmosphere : false
REG_SZ : WaterSurface : false

Software\Google\Google Earth Plus\TourGuide\Filmstrip
REG_SZ : Enabled : false

Settings Description

AlwaysUseExternalBrowser – Force any web results to open in the corporate web browser
enableTips – Disable Start-Up Tips. Improves loading performance
kmlErrorHandling – Ignore KML errors and continue
useHttpsForGoogle2 – Disable HTTPS for Google Earth. Can improve performance, especially in environment where access to CRL’s etc is restricted
TextureColors – Set texture color depth to 16-bit
AnisotropicFiltering_6_2 – Disable anisotropic filtering
HighQualityTerrain – Disable high quality terrain textures
3dImageryEnabled – Use legacy 3D Buildings, instead of new textured ones
RenderingApi – Use DirectX Rendering
DisableAdvancedFeatures – Run in “Safe Mode” and disable advanced graphics features such as midmap texturing
Antialisasing – Disable antialisasing
Atmosphere – Disable atmosphere rendering
WaterSurface – Disable water surface rendering
Enabled – Disable the Tour Guide window to improve start up performance