How can I launch RemoteApp on Windows Server from server itself at startup

Posted by Rusted on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Rusted
Published on 2012-05-31T11:45:54Z Indexed on 2012/06/06 10:43 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 256

I have Windows Server 2008 R2 with RDS and custom desktop (GUI) application installed on the server. The app is started as RemoteApp on server by user from his desktop computer (or, sometimes, he can work from notebook over VPN).

Some details about environment:

  • the server automatically shuts down every evening and automatically power-on every morning (this is a requirement)
  • desktop application do some precalculations/precaching on startup and it can take lot of time
  • mentioned application have some memory leaks, so I can't use hibernate instead of shutdown

When user launching this app from his computer, he can't start work with it until this app finishes pre-initialization.

Is there any way to start RemoteApp session at the server startup (without actual user logon), so that the user could connect to this session from his computer later? I don't want to involve the user's computer to make it work.

I have tried to do it by Windows startup script, but have no luck - starting RDP session requires actual user session.

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about windows-server-2008-r2

Related posts about remote-desktop-services