Installing Remote Desktop HTML5 Web Client on Windows Server RDS | Ranjan.info

Deployed with Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2022/2019/2016, you can install and configure the new HTML5-Based Remote Desktop Web Client, This web client will allow any device (iOS, macOS, Android, Linux) to access your RemoteApps on the RDS host directly from any browser (no need to install additional RDP clients).

Remote Desktop Web Client is available as an RD Web Access role feature on RDS servers running Windows Server 2022/2019/2016.

Before deploying RD Web Client, you must ensure that your RDS infrastructure meets the following requirements:

Installing RD Web HTML5 Client on Windows Server RDS

HTML5 RD Web Client is not included in the Windows Server distribution. You need to manually install the RD Web Client Management Module from the PowerShell Script Gallery.

Install the PowerShellGet module on a server with the RD Web Access role:

Install-Module -Name PowerShellGet -Force

Restart PowerShell.exe console and install RD Web Client Management Module:

Install-Module -Name RDWebClientManagement

To accept the terms of the Microsoft License Agreement, press A,

Then install the latest version of the Web Remote Desktop package:

Install-RDWebClientPackage

After the RDWebClientPackage package is installed, check its properties with the following command:

Get-RDWebClientPackage

As you can see, there appeared rd-html 5.0 package version 1.0.0,

Next, you need to export the SSL certificate from the server with the RDS Connection Broker role used for SSO (Enable Single Sign On). .cer file (BASE64 format).

1. Open Computer Certificate Management Console certlm.msc,
2. Expand the section Personal -> Certificates;
3. Find your certificate that is used in your RDS farm, right-click on it, and select All Tasks -> Export;
4. select the Base-64 Encoded X.509 (.CER) Specify the export format and a file name.

Import the certificate on RD Web Access Server:

Import-RDWebClientBrokerCert C:\RDBrokerCert.cer

Now you can publish RD Web Client:

Publish-RDWebClientPackage -Type Production -Latest

Connecting to RDWeb Access Server with Web (HTML5) Client

After you deploy the WebClient package on the RDS server, you can use the browser on the client computer to access RemoteApps and Desktop. All the latest versions of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox are supported. To access RDS servers from a browser, simply share the URL link of your RDWeb server with your users.

Be sure to use the FQDN of the RD web server to connect. Note that this FQDN must be in your deployment’s RDS certificate (check the Common Name/CN and Subject Alternative Name/SAN fields)

Open URL Address:

To access the test environment, use this URL address:

The server name must match the RD Web Access server name in the SSL certificate.

Sign in to the RDWeb server using your credentials.

During sign-in, you will be prompted about what local resources should be available to your RD session. Only clipboard and printer redirection are available. Currently, local drives and any USB devices cannot be redirected through the HTML5 RDP client. Instead, use the mstsc.exe client, RDCMan, or Analog.

After a successful sign-in, you will see all the RemoteApps published in the RD store. You can switch between them using the icons at the top of the window.

When you run RemoteApp, it will be displayed in the browser with the option to expand the window to full screen.

You can print PDFs from the Remote Desktop web client using a virtual printer (Microsoft Print to PDF). You then print something in the RD Web client window, your browser prompting you to download a PDF file. You can open this PDF (using the built-in Edge PDF viewer or any third party app) and print it to a local printer.

Dynamic change of RD window size and full-screen mode is available in HTML5 RD Web client. You can only copy text (but not files or graphics) to your Remote Desktop session via the clipboard.

Common RD Web Client Errors

When you sign in to RD Web Access via the web client, you see a list of published remote apps, but when you try to launch any of them, you get an error:

Oops, we could not connect to Calculator. The connection to the remote PC was lost. This might be because of a network connection problem. If this keeps happening, ask your administrator or tech support for help.

There may also be an error:

The web client needs a Remote Desktop Gateway to connect to desktops and apps.

These errors occur if you have deployed an RDS farm without RD Web Gateway. If you have only RD Connection Broker deployed, you need to bind your RDS certificate to port 3392 (see details in section) Connecting to RD Broker without RD Gateway in Windows Server 2019 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-web-client-admin,

Mistake:

Your session ended because an unexpected server authentication certificate was received from the remote PC. Ask your admin or tech support for help.

Check that your RD certificate is correct (the FQDN of the server with the RD Web client should be included in the certificate). Verify that this certificate is assigned to all roles in your RDS deployment. Separately, check that this certificate is set in the RDGW server settings (SSL Certificates tab). If possible, use wildcard certificates.