Deploying a new app on Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) consists essentially of three steps: 1) Install the app on the VM that hosts the master WVD image, 2) publish the app, 3) assign users to the app.
Install the app on the master WVD image
- Take a backup of the target VM – login to Azure and search for Backup Centre. Initiate backup from here. It may take a couple of hours to complete.
- Login to the VM as local admin and over RDP – locate the VM, select Connect and then RDP to download the connection file. Run this and enter the local admin account credentials to connect.
- Install the software you want to publish on the VM.
Publish the app
- Open a Powershell console as an administrator on the VM hosting the master WVD image
- Run Add-RdsAccount -DeploymentUrl “https://rdbroker.wvd.microsoft.com” – to initiate session
- Obtain the app alias by running the following to get a list of those available – Get-RdsStartMenuApp Corpapps [host group] [app-group]
- If this returns an error (can’t find module), go ahead and install the modules needed using Install-Module -Name Microsoft.RDInfra.RDPowerShell
- Publish the app you just installed using New-RdsRemoteApp [tenant-name][host-group] [app-group] -Name [name you want to give the app] -AppAlias [the app alias you got from step 3]
Assign users
To publish a remote app to a user, run the following Powershell command. This can be done on any PC connected to the internet: Add-RdsAppGroupUser [tenant-name] [host-group] [app-group] -UserPrincipalName [username]
Other useful commands
- Add-RdsAccount -DeploymentUrl https://rdbroker.wvd.microsoft.com – to connect PS to WVD
- Get-RdsAppGroupUser [tenant-name] [host-pool-name] [app-group] – get a list of users that are offered apps in the app group as remote apps
- Get-RdsAppGroup -TenantName [tenant-name] -HostPoolName [host-pool-name] – gets all app groups in the host pool
- Remove-RdsRemoteApp [tenant-name] [host-pool-name] [app-group] -Name “[name you gave the app]” -AppAlias [alias that was obtained in step 3 above] – remove app from the app group