I have a customer which is experiencing multiple issue working with AVD through the Remote Desktop Client. These issues have been reported for a few months and we have looked into them. Some got sorted out or got solved in new version of the Remote Desktop Client (or with newer Azure stack). But we still have some open issues which we cannot solve because it looks to be bugs in the Remote Desktop Client itself.
Before I start summing up the problems I will describe the environment.
User
A user works on their company owned and Intune managed device, an example is a Lenovo with i5 (11th), 16 GB of RAM running OS Windows 10 Enterprise 22H2 (build 19045.2965). We are using Windows Defender as anti-virus program. And the Intune deployed Remote Desktop Client version 1.2.4240.0. There were earlier versions installed but moving to the newer one did not solve the issues.
The user works with local Office applications, Adobe Acrobat, Edge, etc. For the multiple business application the user AVD Published application. That’s where the issues start.
AVD environment
They have 25 machines in AVD with Windows 11 Enterprise multisession installed. Today they have 121 sessions (106 active) running on Standard D4ds v5 Azure virtual machines. They do not use the public preview RDP shortpath. They connect form multiple locations throughout the Netherlands.
Issues
- An user has two Excel sheets, both AVD published applications, on one screen (multimonitor setup). When initiating a drag and drop action, during the drag action (mouse button is hold) the other Excel sheet jumps to the front. When the drop action (mouse button release) the original sheet is shown. (Reproducible)
- In some application the application popups (e.g. login screen business application or print preview window) parts are invisible, hovering over them makes then visible. Some screen vectors looks as if they are not updated, until you hover over them. (Reproducible)
- Some application pop ups are scaled very small. (not reproducible)
- They open their accounting software multiple times to open different clients of them. This are AVD published applications. When hovering over the taskbar setting the thumbnails with description is shown for the multiple opened application. The description normally looks like something like: “<xxxxxx customer name> – <Application Name>”. Sometimes all of them are populated, other times only a few (or all) show only “<Application Name>”. So without the description. (somewhat reproducible)
- Users have been reporting that selecting for example a button in the Word ribbon selects the button next to it. As if the local mouse cursor is not in sync with AVD. (not reproducible)
- Copy and paste from local to published application does not always work, sometimes have to try it 2-3 times before they can paste in AVD.
What have we done
- Went to client locations and tested the network
- Saw the problems first handed and the frequency of them
- Switched the transport protocol of the Remote Desktop Client to TCP
- Got dozens of screenshots of the connection details of the Remote Desktop Client
- Let some key users test on a UAT (user acceptance test) server, even isolated one on that server.
- Analyzed the resource uses of the AVD environment in Azure and within the Windows OS.
- Upgraded and tested multiple Remote Desktop Client versions
- Contact their ISP provider (SD WAN) and let them analyze the line.
- Contacted the party who is responsible for the network
- Let the users test from different location, also non corporate, and using different network mediums (WiFi, LAN and hotspots)
- Customer supplied a representable laptop to do test work
- Changed RDP hostpool setting from only having the first listed option.
- enablerdsaadauth:i:1
- smart sizing:i:1
- bandwidthautodetect:i:0
- networkautodetect:i:0
- redirected video capture encoding quality:i:1
- Added user keys
- HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options; DisableMergeInstance value 1 (DWORD),
- HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Graphics; DisableHardwareAcceleration with value 1 (DWORD
- HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced; ShowInfoTip with value 0 (DWORD)
- HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize; EnableTransparency with value 0 (DWORD)
- Added GPO
- GPO: Microsoft Office 2016/Miscellaneous Disable Office animations
- GPO: Microsoft Office 2016/Global Options/Customize/Menu animations disabled
- New Remote Desktop Services SxS network stack did not solve issues
- Searched almost the whole internet
- Multiple engineers have looked at the problem and I am the last station before it goes to you guys.
At this moment there is one user testing the full desktop instead of using published applications. I think focus, rendering, etc. will be better or even not exist in full desktop. But this customer needs the AVD published applications.
I have already made a Microsoft Support case but thought might as well post it here seeing allot of people may have ran into these issues.
