Start OneDrive when using a RemoteApp in WVD

[DjTjon01]

Hi Guys,

I am testing with WVD in a Lab environment, and everything is working fine. I only have one thing that doesn't seem to work. OneDrive is starting when i'm using the "Full Desktop" mode in WVD, but when i start a RemoteApp, the OneDrive client isn't starting. 

Is this a WVD / FSLogix related issue? And how can i solve this?

Thanks,

Leon

[#2]

@DjTjon01 

I was having this issue as well. I found out that OneDrive did not install properly from the proplus deployment. Microsoft recently release the OneDrive machine install. This worked for me so far.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/per-machine-installation

[#3]

@wprobasco 

Well i did install the OneDrive Machine install, but it still won't start when i use a RemoteApp. I checked the location and it is installed in the Program Files directory, so everything seems to be in order.

So thats not the solutions for me.

[#4]

@DjTjon01，

If you go to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, can you find the OneDrive icon and start it when using the remote app?

For our troubleshooting, can you upload some screenshots about “OneDrive is starting when i'm using the ‘Full Desktop’ mode in WVD” and “when i start a RemoteApp, the OneDrive client isn't starting” for our reference?

Note: remove all private information before uploading the screenshots.

Best Regards,

Cliff

[#5]

@DjTjon01 

Hi Leon,

My name is Jeremy Esposito and I’m a SPO/OD Senior Support Escalation Engineer.
Can you confirm you are have FSLogix version 2.8 and higher?

This is mentioned as a requirement in the OneDrive sync restrictions documentation.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/invalid-file-names-and-file-types-in-onedrive-onedrive-for-...

Happy to help investigate/resolve this issue.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Jeremy

[#6]

 @Jeremy Esposito I have the same scenario happening. I've also confirmed it happens on an 2019 RDSH server. it has nothing to do w/ FSLogic... but the fact that remoteapp launches a stripped down user session and only launches necessary items. id' love a work around too!

[#7]

I too have the same issue in both WVD using Windows 10 multi-user and on Server 2016/2019. It's not great but I did find a workaround. I made sure that OneDrive was installed in Machine mode (instead of the default user mode), then I created a RemoteApp for the system install of OneDrive. Now, I just tell people using the system to make sure they run the OneDrive RemoteApp whenever they start a new session. It's not great, and is preventing any kind of company wide roll-out, but it works for advanced users. I too would like a better solution thou...

[#8]

@Brent Carlson Thanks for the update!

Per machine install is the only install method supported for WVD. This why you were able to get OD sync work with the per machine install method. As for running OneDrive as a remote app, it isn't necessary or useful to run OD sync as a remote app because it's not an app that users will interact with (like MS word, excel, etc) and/or access their files from.

OD sync is essentially a utility to keep the files synced to/from the cloud and monitor sync status.

Monitoring sync status should be done within the WVD session.

Hope this helps!

[#9]

@Jeremy Esposito the reason he suggest that, and I agree, is because it then triggers the sync for that user session. so a user can then open an app, save the their desktop, and that is then sync'd to all of their other devices... making it much easier for a user to use a remoteapp. saving to a network share is not always ideal or wanted. 

My goal is to do away w/ personal network drives and move to onedrive for all private info, but this not working, makes it hard to do that.

[#10]

@mshepherdDid you ever find a solution to this?  We're using OneDrive/SharePoint for all of our users and we're publishing a couple remote apps that need OneDrive running in the background so that the user can access the SharePoint libraries via File Explorer when they're in a RemoteApp.  I'm in the same boat - works fine on a full session, but doesn't work on a RemoteApp.  My line of thinking is to run some sort of script or launch the OnedDrive EXE when the user launches a RemoteApp.  But I haven't quite figured out how to make this work yet. 

[#11]

Thanks for the updates! Please bear with me if I'm missing the point of the use-case you are referring to.

First, in order to have the documents, desktop, pictures folders synced to OneDrive, 'OneDrive Backup' needs to be enabled in OneDrive sync.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Back-up-your-Documents-Pictures-and-Desktop-folders-with-On...

When a user is on a local computer and launches an Office remote app (say MS-Word) then goes to File> Open>OneDrive-Tenant OR Sites-Tenant>(some folder), MS-Word uses the O365 connected service to connect to that users OneDrive or SPO site and works with/saves that file in the cloud.

In this use-case, the OneDrive sync client remote app is not needed.

[#12]

@Jeremy EspositoHi Jeremey, thanks for the quick reply.  Unfortunately, this isn't for an Office application, otherwise, your way would work perfectly. This is actually for a Dynamics Integration Manager flat file upload, so the user needs access to the SharePoint library via File Explorer from within Dynamics.  I'm working on a solution now, but it seems the trick is to publish a Batch Script to RemoteApps that launches the Dynamics application and OneDrive.  Also the RD Server needs to be set for a Single Session per user via a GPO so that they open within the same session.

[#13]

@mirthrock 

My pleasure! Thanks for sharing your use-case scenario.

It sounds like you would need to run OneDrive sync locally/same computer that is running DIM or implement the workaround you detailed. Hope it works out!

[#14 · Accepted solution]

@mirthrock @mshepherd 

We are in the process of documenting how to auto-start OneDrive in a Remote App scenario.

We will be documenting the following registry entry:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RailRunonce

I believe this works the same as the regular run keys, except that anything listed under this key will be launched when the remote session starts.

What happens is that in a remote session, Explorer.exe is not used as the Windows shell. rdpshell.exe is run instead. rdpshell.exe does not process Run entries. It does do the RailRunonce key though.

[#15]

@racook Thanks for the response! Can I attempt this solution now? I'm happy to run through our pre-release of the documentation to see how it works before you publish it.

thanks

[#16]

@mshepherd Absolutely. That's been in the code for a while, so should "just work".

[#17]

@mirthrock check out @racook response. I have not tried this yet but will in the next day or two. He described the problem 100% correctly so i'm pretty confident it will work. Fingers crossed. I'll reply back once we implement it.

[#18]

@racook - prefect. I'll let you know how it goes. thanks

[#19]

@racook Nice, will test it out! Thanks for your help!

[#20]

@racook and @mshepherd - Right before I saw this post yesterday, I implemented a workaround. I wrote a batch script that launches the application I need (in this case Dynamics GP) and OneDrive with the /background switch so that it doesn't open File Explorer when it launches. Then I published that batch file as a RemoteApp (and changed the name and icon to Dynamics GP so the users don't know the difference). This combined with the group policies that autoconfigure OneDrive seemed to do the trick. However, I'd much rather go the cleaner route of using the RailRunOnce reg key instead. Did that registry key work for you?