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RemoteApp enhancements (preview)

Upcoming enhancements to Azure Virtual Desktop RemoteApps and Windows 365 Cloud Apps include improved support for Windows Snap and full-screen mode, better multi-monitor handling, and refined visuals like borders, shadows, and theme integration. This article shows you how to enable these upcoming enhancements for testing during public preview.

During public preview, these enhancements need to be manually enabled. Once these enhancements become generally available (GA), they'll be enabled by default on supported systems.

Important

This preview is gradually being rolled out, so even after you follow the enablement steps, the enhancements may not be immediately available in production environments. To test this feature immediately, use an Azure Virtual Desktop validation environment as described in the enablement steps.

Prerequisites

In order to enable these enhancements during public preview, you need the following things:

Enable RemoteApp enhancements (preview)

During public preview, these enhancements to RemoteApps must be enabled via the registry on your session hosts or Cloud PCs.

  1. Set the following registry value on the session hosts or Cloud PCs:

    • Key: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services
    • Type: REG_DWORD
    • Value name: EnableRemoteAppV2
    • Value data: 1

    If you're enabling these enhancements for Windows 365 Cloud Apps, you can deploy this registry value to Cloud PCs using Remediations in Intune.

  2. (Optional) If you're using Azure Virtual Desktop, you can configure your session hosts as a validation environment. You can always test the most up-to-date fixes and improvements to this feature by using it within a validation environment.

  3. Ensure that you haven't disabled either of these Group Policies on the session hosts or Cloud PCs:

    • Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment > Use advanced RemoteFX graphics for RemoteApp

    • Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment > Enable enhanced shell experience for RemoteApp

  4. Reboot the session hosts or Cloud PCs.

Verify RemoteApp enhancements are working

Once you enable these enhancements, connect to a RemoteApp or Cloud App from a local device, and check that the enhancements are working. You can verify that the remote session type is correct using the Connection Information dialog from Windows App or the Remote Desktop app.

  1. Using a supported client (see Prerequisites), connect to a published RemoteApp or Cloud App.

  2. Open the Connection Information dialog box:

    • Using Windows App: Press Ctrl-Alt-End to bring up the Windows Security dialog box, then right-click its title bar and select Connection information.
    • Using the Remote Desktop client: Right-click the Remote Desktop icon in the system tray, hover over the menu entry for your active connection, and select Connection information.

  3. In the Connection Information dialog box, select See details.

  4. Check the "Remote session type" value:

    • If "Remote session type" has a value of RemoteAppV2, then the RemoteApp enhancements are working.
    • If "Remote session type" has any other value, then the RemoteApp enhancements aren't working. Check that your client and host meet all the prerequisites, and check that you've correctly set the enablement registry value on the host.

Known issues and limitations

  • Certain RemoteApp enhancements aren't applied to Microsoft Edge and Chrome.
  • System notifications from RemoteApps are sometimes displayed too low on the screen.
  • Attempting to narrow a RemoteApp window that is already at minimum width sometimes moves the window instead.
  • The Snap Flyout that appears when hovering over a RemoteApp window's maximize button doesn't correctly honor the display scale on secondary displays.
  • Closing a RemoteApp window sometimes changes the foreground window.
  • Parts of the File Explorer RemoteApp are sometimes unresponsive.
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