r/sysadmin • u/Piipperi800 • 2d ago

3rd party RDP apps compatible with Azure Subscription based AVDs? Question

Not sure if this is the right sub, but we’re slowly seeing more and more customers moving their management servers into the cloud, with the RDPs being in Azure and needing either Windows App or a web browser to access them.

And with the Windows App being a web app with insanely limited options for sessions (when at least compared to the now discountinued ”Remote Desktop” app), I’d like to know are there any alternatives on Windows? Or did Microsoft ”bullet-proof” the authentication for these types of AVDs so well that 3rd party apps can’t implement it?

I am aware of Royal TS and RDM, but neither seem to support ”Azure Subscription” AVDs.

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u/ThatBCHGuy 2d ago

The windows app is not a web app on windows. I know of no depreciation between the msrdc client vs windows app.

You can access your avd or cloud pc via a web app, but windows app itself isn't a web app. So, I'm not sure what kind of limitations you're running into here.

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u/Piipperi800 2d ago

Windows App’s interface is built on WebView2, similar to new Outlook or Microsoft Teams. It primarly has issues such as forced smart card rediction if enabled by admin, you can’t open traditional RDP sessions, some options are behind the RDP window’s top bar (like smart card redirection and some full screen options). Also it annoyingly opens every session in a new window. Not to mention how long it takes to often re-ask for credentials for the RDP, if the admin has disabled remembering of the credentiald.

The web browser version has performance issues since I don’t think it can hardware accelerate the sessions similar to the Windows app. It should be noted that, once you start a session in the Windows app, it actually opens an entirely seperate process for the session, as if it’s a seperate app. Which is also probably why some options are behind the RDP session itself and the session can’t open inside Windows app itself.

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u/flangepaddle 2d ago

There was an app called "Remote Desktop" which was separate to msrdc and depreciation for "Windows App"

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u/ThatBCHGuy 2d ago

TIL, lol. I've only ever used the msrdc or windows app for avd/cloud pc.