Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) / Desktop App Assure (DAA) Pilot

[evasse]

If you are running or plan to run a pilot soon for Window 10 Enterprise Multisession, let us know. We want to hear about any compatibility issues you encounter and let you know how our Desktop App Assure team can help at no cost. Most virtualized apps that work on Windows Server with RDS role will work on Windows 10 Enterprise Multisession. However, If you encounter an issue when running an app, the DAA team will help remediate those issues at no cost.

Email achelp@microsoft.com for more information.

NOTE: Limited seats available.

[#2]

@evasse Our biggest issue has been with client apps that are interactive, and don't set a keep alive with their sockets.

On Azure, there's a hard 4 minute inactive outbound connection timeout, which isn't configurable.

We have one app that doesn't set keepalives (or send them frequently enough), and its interactive sessions are silently killed by Azure's network stack after 4 minutes of inactivity. We have no way of modifying the application itself, so we can't enable any application-layer keep alives. (Making the app unusable on WVD).

[#3]

@Nicholas Semenkovich Thanks for reaching out to us. Please submit Request for Assistance (RFA) in FastTrack portal using the below mentioned steps which will help us in working with you. 

• Access this link: www.aka.ms/DesktopAppAssureRequest
• Click the services tab.
• Click Desktop App Assure from the services list
• Fill the fields and mention "AppCompat issue on WVD" under assistance needed field. 
• Submit the new request.

[#4]

We've just created our first deployment to demo to our customer's management team and found that we were unable to install Bitdefender Enterprise Security Tools in our custom image. The AV product states that the operating system is not supported/compatible. I'm fairly sure this is just them being over cautious with their OS checks.

Installing with Windows 8.1 compatibility worked as a test but the product continues to flag the issue in the GUI.

I reached out to them and they seemed to think that the OS was in preview still, technically true I suppose but the OS doesn't advertise that anywhere. Maybe worth MS reaching out to them to work on that.

[#5]

@Ben White Thanks for reaching out to us. For WVD, you need AV that’s optimized/supported on multi-session environments, typically designed for server.

Please submit Request for Assistance (RFA) in FastTrack portal using the below mentioned steps which will help us in working with you. 

• Access this link: www.aka.ms/DesktopAppAssureRequest
• Click the services tab.
• Click Desktop App Assure from the services list
• Fill the fields and mention "AppCompat issue on WVD" under assistance needed field. 
• Submit the new request.

[#6]

@evasse Can you give us guidance on setting up antivirus and rmm on the windows virtual desktop session host? Do we install these to the gold image or elsewhere? Is windows defender an acceptable alternative and does it come configured on windows 10 multi session? 

We are about to roll out a 10 user system and want to use Webroot antivirus (unless windows defender is acceptable) and our RMM tool, Ninja. Would appreciate some support and ideas on how to install and implement at-scale as we intend to roll this out to larger clients in the future.

[#7]

@Travis_Qtech You could integrate applications into the golden image and use that to deploy host pools. Whether you want to use Windows Defender AV or a 3rd party should be up to your requirements, I'd recommend to look at independent sites like https://www.av-test.org/en/ for a high level comparison. We've been investing in Windows Defender AV a lot with great results. 

I'm not familiar with the rmm tool but it's likely embedding this into the golden image is the best practice. You could validate with the vendor for traditional RDS deployment, the guidance isn't any different in WVD.

Good luck!

[#8]

Got this ERRORS
Deployment template validation failed: 'The template resource '_artifactsLocation' at line '109' and column '31' is not valid: The language expression property 'templateLink' doesn't exist, available properties are 'template, templateHash, parameters, mode, debugSetting, provisioningState'.. Please see https://aka.ms/arm-template-expressions for usage details.'.

[#9]

@James Lau this is a known issue, we are working hard to resolve. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

[#10]

Thanks, meanwhile any workaround you may provide to us?

[#11 · Accepted solution]

It's fixed now, at least for me 🙂

[#12]

@Phani Krishna Maringanti 

Hi All, just chiming back in here to say that the latest installer from Bitdefender doesn't block installation on the OS.  From what I can tell they have the necessary exclusions in place to run properly in the environment.

Regards

Ben

[#13]

@evasse outlook profiles are corrupted when people move from host to host.

password required but cant logon. wiping profile does not help.

[#14]

@Juleulven: This looks like an issue you would like to raise with office support. 

In order to get answers timely from the right expert in this forum for every new issue raised post a new topic.

Thank you.

[#15]

@Juleulven Please drop a mail to achelp@microsoft.com if this issue is happening on Windows Virtual Desktop. App Assure team will work with you to understand more details of the issue.

[#16]

How do we handle software, such as pervasive workgroup engine, that activates a key based on the machine information? Every time we update the golden image, it syspreps and this then looks like a new machine to the licensing service. You can imagine this is probably going to be an issue for many apps that are not "Vdi" aware. Any tips?