Q: What's RemoteApp for Hyper-V?

A: Imagine you have an application that doesn’t run well in a Remote Desktop Services (RDS) session. Maybe that application isn’t coded well, or consumes too many resources. That same application might work just fine when it’s used by a single user at a time.

Now imagine a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment where a pool of desktops has been created, with the problem application installed to each. In a typical VDI scenario, provisioning access to that application means delivering the entire desktop. But instead of that entire desktop, you’d rather deliver just the application in a seamless mode. RemoteApp for Hyper-V is the mechanism by which you can do this.

Using RemoteApp for Hyper-V, a user can double-click a specially-configured RDP file and be connected to a server or desktop. For this connection, instead of connecting directly to the server’s desktop, the application is presented instead.

You can think of RemoteApp for Hyper-V as a kind of single-user RDS for both servers and desktops. Its name includes "Hyper-V," but a RemoteApp for Hyper-V connection can be made to any Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 computer. Earlier OSs are also supported after you install an update package on them.

The update package for Windows XP SP3 is here. The update for Windows Vista SP1 can be found here.