Integration Manager error with a twist: All windows and palettes must be closed

A few days ago on Experts Exchange, I fielded a question regarding the very familiar Integration Manager 9 error:

"The destination could not be initialized due to the following problem: All Microsoft Business Solutions - Great Plains windows and palettes must be closed before starting an integration."

This is a common error, but is usually easily solved by just closing any open windows. What made this a little unusual were some of the details:

1) IM 9 was being run in a Citrix environment
2) IM worked fine the first time the integration was run, but after that, the error occurred
3) The user was sure that all GP windows were closed

The only thing that seemed to be uncommon was that they were running IM in a Citrix environment. So we tried checking for orphaned Dynamics.exe processes, and even tested running the integration when no other users were on the server. But the problem still occurred.

The user shared that if IM was shut down and restarted, the error still occurred. But if GP was shut down and restarted, the error went away for one more integration (but would still happen again after the first integration completed).

After a few rounds of questions, the user posted a key piece of information: The user was logging into a different GP company after the first integration completed and running the same integration in a second GP company.

So I installed IM 9 in a test environment, then had to create a test company in GP 9 so that I had two companies to switch between. I ran the sample GL Transaction integration into TWO, and it ran fine. I then switched to my Test company, and when I tried to run the same integration, sure enough, the error occurred.

I knew I didn't have any GP windows open, so something else was causing the problem. Staring at GP for a few seconds, it occurred to me that the GP "Home Page" was technically a window. Curious, I clicked on the "X" to close the home page, ran the integration again, and violá, IM ran just fine.

I tested this several times and confirmed that when switching companies between IM integrations, IM considers the GP home page to be an open window.

So, I offered that the user either manually close the Home Page between integrations after logging into the second company, or change their settings so that the Home Page does not open. Thankfully, that solved the problem for them as well.