Windows 10 as RDS server

[Farhad_b]

Hi guys,

I want to publish an application by VMware Horizon but there is a problem. This application only installs on Windows 10 and when I tried to install it on Windows Server 2019 it said "Your OS is not Supported". It installed on Windows Server but it didn't work, I even enabled combability mode (Windows 7) but it didn't work. I know I can use Instant Clone Application publishing and I've tested it and it worked by this feature but I don't have resources to create an Instance for every users, I want to use RDS because multiple users can use only one server and no need a lot of resources. 

Is there any trick or solution that helps me to enable RDS on windows 10 that vmware horizon can detect it as RDSH?

Best Regards.   

[Mickeybyte]

@Farhad_b 

Does the installation won't "install" on server OS or does it not want to "start" on server OS. 

If it's only the installation that is problematic, you could try packaging the app with AppVolumes and assign the AppVolume to an RDS server. 

[Farhad_b]

Thank You. I also tried AppVolume. I captured installation of application on windows 10 and then assigned Application template to RDS server but again application not run. It is an engineering application and I didn't see application that installed on Windows 10 but didn't on Windows server. It's weird!!

[vDruid]

Hello, If your app is not compatible with windows server os, you can try to ThinApp it. That should work but depending on your app required interaction with other apps or OS, it can be very limited. You can also deliver the Thinapp package thru app volumes :

https://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2015/01/vmware-app-volumes-thinapp-vdi-view-integration-horizon.html

windows 10 multi session is provided by Microsoft, but only when hosted on azure. 

[Farhad_b]

Thank you vDruid. Is it possible to use a ThinApp package in RDS server cause what I know is ThinApp converts application that needs to install to portable exe file so on the RDS server my application is not installed and I can't select it on RDS Application. It seems if I want to use RDS I must use ThinApp and AppVolume together. 

[vDruid]

To be honest I never tested this. That was just to give you other options to look at. 

Perhaps it requires some tweaking. 

you can perhaps find more ideas here :

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ThinApp/ThinApp-and-Remote-Desktop-Session-Host-terminal-server/td...

regards

[vDruid]

I think you need to "install" the thinapp packages for Horizon to see it as an OS installed application. This is done with thinreg:.exe:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-ThinApp/2212/thinapp-users-guide/GUID-012E1FF2-EE6E-44CF-A424-785F...

Let me know if this helps. App Volumes would be optional then.

[Farhad_b]

Thank you vDruid. Now I am doing what you say and when it's done I will let you know.

[Farhad_b]

I've created a ThinApp package but in Horizon 8, there is no ThinApp configuration. If I understood correctly you mean I must use a thinreg.exe to install or better to say register this package in RDS server. Is it true?

[vDruid]

Yes, use thinreg for that the application shows installed as for any app (present in windows add/remove programs). 
then Horizon would see it on de RDS Host and allow you to publish it. 

[michelkeus_stwg]

To "fake" Windows 10 RDSH in an unsupported way you can have a look at this: Sysadmin Tips: Multiple RDP (Remote Desktop) sessions in Windows 10 but I do not know if this will work with the RDSH functions in Horizon. In theory installing the Horizon Agent and linking it to a pool ought to work but I have not tested this.

If you want this a supported variant then you would need to move this workload to Azure to use a Windows 10 Multisession image which is available there. Officially Windows 10 multisession is an Azure-only feature. In our Horizon Cloud on Azure environment and AVD environment this works like a charm.

[Farhad_b]

I am sorry for late reply, last week I was so busy.

I tried ThinApp to create a package of my application but unfortunately it didn't work.

EXE file that created by ThinApp didn't run on the windows server. I didn't see such an application that run only run on windows 10!!!!

[Farhad_b]

I tried fake Windows 10 RDS but Horizon doesn't detect it in RDS farm as a RDS server. I think Horizon Agent detects it's not a real RDS server cause there is no Terminal service on Windows 10.