Can RDP clients launch remote applications and not desktops

Question

Can RDP clients launch a remote application and then only display that application (and not the desktop)? The application would appear fullscreen within the client and if the application were closed the session would end.

Solution 1

Using an RDP connection file you can set the alternate shell to be your application; the file syntax is like

alternate shell:s:c:\winnt\system32\notepad.exe

and you pass that as a command-line argument to mstsc.exe; this similar to chrissr's solution, but without affecting every RDP session you launch. A fuller summary of settings here.

Solution 2

"alternate shell" doesn't seem to work anymore in recent versions of Windows, RemoteApp is the way to go.

remoteapplicationmode:i:1
remoteapplicationname:s:Purpose of the app shown to user...
remoteapplicationprogram:s:C:\...\some.exe
remoteapplicationcmdline:s:

To get this to work under e.g. Windows 10 Professional, one needs to enable some policy:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services]
"fAllowUnlistedRemotePrograms"=dword:00000001

Solution 3

This is called "seamless" mode. rdesktop, the RDP client for Unix, is capable of this. From the manpage:

   -A     Enable SeamlessRDP. In this mode, rdesktop creates a X11 window for each window on the server
          side.  This  mode  requires  the  SeamlessRDP  server side component, which is available from
          http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/.  When using this option, you  should  specify  a  startup
          shell which launches the desired application through SeamlessRDP.

See mentioned Cendio website for more information.

Solution 4

Yes, you can change the default shell from Explorer.exe to a specific application.

In Regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. The current shell should be Explorer.exe. Change it to YourApp.exe. That will change the shell for all users who log on to the machine. If you only want to change it for a specific user, go to the same key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead.

Solution 5

This is called RemoteApp. To use it you need to install Terminal Services, which is now called Remote Desktop Services.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/10817.publishing-remoteapps-in-windows-server-2012.aspx

View more solutions

Comments

[chrissr]

Note: Users will still be able to CTRL-Alt-Del and access other applications. You may want to disable CTRL-Alt-Del for the account or group that will be logging in via RDP.

[ypnos]

This effectively disables the user to log in regularly.

[Steve Gilham]

Under the hood the key component of XenApp is still server-based computing (just as it was a decade ago when the product was called MetaFrame). It's just that marketing fashions have changed, and the product has broadened to contain more than just the app remoting core.

[sonjz]

didn't work for me... i saw the property in the .rdp file, but making the change (which appears should work), didn't change anything when i initiated the connection. remoting from vista x64 to win 7 x64.

[Nikola Malešević]

Unfortunately, the link is dead.

[WhiteHotLoveTiger]

Could you update this with more details, or at least fix the link?

[lynx_74]

Use this link: web.archive.org/web/20130127155938/http://coe.uncc.edu/mosai‌​c/…

[ScottC]

is anything like this available on windows?

[مسعود]

Not working for me on windows 10. Did they remove this feature?

[picrap]

Just to add some precision: the above changes (from the first section) have to be made in the .rdp file itself, and the registry on the server.

[Moshe Rubin]

For the record, there are two similarly named RDP keys: remoteapplicationfile:s and remoteapplicationprogram:s. The *file key specifies the full path to an executable on the local (host) computer, while the *program key specifies an executable on the remote computer.

[LinuxLuigi]

It's still working for me on Windows 10 20H2 (19042.928) !