Windows App replaces Remote Desktop: what changes for your users
Microsoft has retired the old Remote Desktop clients. How to move users to Windows App without disrupting remote access.
By the Telappliant team
Microsoft has consolidated its remote access clients into a single application called Windows App. If your people connect to a Cloud PC, a virtual desktop or an office machine from home, the client they launch has changed.
What changed
The separate Remote Desktop clients for Windows, macOS, iOS and the browser have been retired and replaced by Windows App. It is one client for Windows 365 Cloud PCs, Azure Virtual Desktop, Remote Desktop Services and direct connections to individual PCs, with a unified sign-in and a single list of resources.
What your users will notice
- A different icon and a different name, which alone generates tickets if unannounced
- Sign-in with the work account rather than a saved connection file
- Published resources appear automatically once they authenticate
- Manually created connections to named PCs need recreating
- Multi-monitor and device redirection settings live in a new place
How to migrate without a support spike
- Identify who actually uses remote access and how, including the occasional users
- Deploy Windows App through Intune ahead of the cutover so it is already installed
- Document the two or three connection patterns your business uses, with screenshots
- Announce the change with the date and a one-page guide, before it appears on desktops
- Keep a short overlap where both routes work, then remove the old client
Take the opportunity to tighten access
Remote access is where weak controls hurt most. While you are touching every remote user, enforce MFA and conditional access on those sessions, require a compliant device, disable clipboard and drive redirection where it is not needed, and confirm session timeouts are short enough to matter.
Is this the moment to move to Cloud PCs
If you are supporting a pile of ageing office machines purely so remote workers have something to connect to, a Windows 365 Cloud PC often costs less than maintaining the hardware, and it removes the dependency on an office machine being switched on.
