Using TS RemoteApps on Chrome, Firefox without downloading RDP file?

Question

I have published some TS RemoteApps on a Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter. All members of the network are now able to open the Remote Apps via IE, Chrome, Firefox and Opera. That was easy! However, I there is a small difference between calling the apps via IE and the other browsers. In other browsers an RDP file is atomatically downloaded and the user has to use this file to open the desired remote app.

My question: Is there a way to open TS RemoteApps in different browsers than IE without this RDP file?

Answer 1

The behavior is different in IE vs the other browsers is that the website makes use of ActiveX (if available). Therefore, when the user clicks on the tile of the application, magic happens: ActiveX takes over, your Windows machine behaves as if it is actually subscribed via Control Panel to the list of applications, your credentials are reused and MSTSC is actually launched.

ActiveX is not supported on Chrome / Firefox. File-type associations / ClickOnce is also not supported on Chrome / Firefox.

For a close to native experience, I suggest looking into RemoteApp and Desktop Connection: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2009/06/08/introducing-remoteapp-and-desktop-connections.aspx - this is accessible from the Control Panel and can also be pushed:

• via a logon script in Windows 7: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dsadsi/archive/2011/11/30/automating-the-silent-deployment-of-remoteapp-and-desktop-connection.aspx
• via a Group Policy in Windows 8+: http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/04/setting-default-remoteapp-connection.html

Disclaimer: I am the current developer/maintainer of this code base - if you have any other ideas, I am willing to listen, code it and give you credit for it :)

/cd