Most staff do not need a whole second desktop. They need Tally, or the billing program, open in a window on their own screen. RemoteApp delivers exactly that — and it is one of the most underused features offices already pay for when they license RDS.
RemoteApp is the quiet middle path between 'share the whole desktop' and 'install the app on every PC'. The application runs on the server, but appears on the user's own screen as an ordinary window, next to their local apps. The data never leaves the server; the user experience feels local. Here is what it takes and where it shines.
The server does the running; the user's screen only shows the one application they asked for.
RemoteApp is a delivery mode of Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server. Instead of publishing a full server desktop, the administrator publishes a program. The user double-clicks an icon, signs in once, and the program opens in its own window — resizable, minimisable, sitting in their taskbar like a local app, while actually executing on the server with the server's data.
For offices built around one central application — accounting, billing, inventory — this matches the real need far better than handing everyone a second desktop to get lost in.
RemoteApp is not a free trick layered over a normal PC; it stands on the full RDS foundation:
Users reach published apps either through the RD Web Access page — a simple web list of the apps they are allowed — or through shortcuts delivered to their PCs (an .rdp file or a feed pushed by the administrator). Sign-in happens once per connection; after that, the app behaves like a local window.
Printer and drive redirection can be switched on so the app prints to the user's local printer and can open files from their PC — configured deliberately, not left wide open by default.
Honest boundaries: some applications misbehave when several users run them on one machine — licensing dongles, single-user databases and badly behaved updaters are the usual suspects, so pilot your exact application before rolling out. RemoteApp also still means one server to patch, back up and size correctly; it simplifies the users' world, not the administrator's. And like all RDS, it is a LAN-first design — over the internet it belongs behind RD Gateway or a VPN, never as an exposed RDP port.
See the video's multi-user setup on one machine, then consider whether your office actually needs full desktops — or just its one key app, published.
▶️ Watch Full VideoYes. A RemoteApp program runs inside an RDS session on the server, so each user or device needs the same RDS CAL as a full remote desktop.
Yes, if the administrator enables drive redirection for the session. In many offices the better default is saving on the server, where the shared data and the backups already live.
Yes, through RD Gateway or a VPN, which wrap the connection safely. Never publish it by exposing the server's RDP port directly to the internet — that port is constantly scanned and attacked.