Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Windows Server 2012 RemoteApp and Desktop Connections: Default Connections and File Type Associations

A new blog post by Travis Howe, a developer on the Remote Desktop Virtualization team on default connections and file type associations in Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012.

A summary:

“…Default connections

When we added the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, many administrators wanted to be able to push connections to their users by using Group Policy. To help enable this, we supported a “silent install” API that allowed a user to be signed up for a connection without any prompts. Administrators had to push something like this script on Script Center to their users by using Group Policy.

In Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, we improved this scenario. We have added a new Group Policy container under “Remote Desktop Services” called “RemoteApp and Desktop Connections,” and within that container have defined a new policy setting called “Specify default connection URL.” Enabling this policy setting causes users to be subscribed to RemoteApp and Desktop Connection at the specified URL. RemoteApp and Desktop Connections that have been installed by using this policy setting have a special name: default connections…”

“…File type associations support: what does it mean?

So what do I mean when I say that default connections are able to install file type associations? When an administrator is publishing RemoteApp programs, they can also choose to publish file types that should be associated with that program. Then, when the RemoteApp program is installed as part of a default connection, we associate the RemoteApp program with those file types on the client machine.

The next time the user tries to open a file of that type, the standard Windows 8 file type association behavior will be used to determine which of the registered programs should be used to open the file. Often, the user will be given a choice. For example, if Microsoft Paint has been published as a RemoteApp program with the .bmp file type association, the user is presented with the following options…”

prompt

For the complete blog post and source:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2013/05/21/windows-server-2012-remoteapp-and-desktop-connections-default-connections-and-file-type-associations.aspx

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    Warning while accessing RemoteApp and Desktop Connection RemoteApp via GPO on VDI collection.

    "The installation of the default connection has been cancelled. A default connection cannot be used on a system that is part of a Remote Desktop Services deployment."

    ReplyDelete