Windows thinclient running browser locally and Remoteapp from Windows RDS

[tech_london]

Hey guys,

I've a common problem across all my RDS/Citrix deployments when running a full desktop session as web browsing inside the session consumes a lot of resources plus has latency. I want to try Remoteapp for RDS first so I can use a Windows based thinclient or a regular computer converted to thinclient that will have IE/Chrome installed locally to run web browsing saving CPU/memory usage on RDS/Citrix server and deploy all applications like MS Office and other LOB applications as Remoteapps.

I've not done this in production yet, but I've been testing in a POC at the moment and it works fine, especially with single sign-on, the person logs into the windows thinclient and there is no password prompts anymore.

Have you guys tried something similar? Any thoughts, opinions, criticism, flaws that you could share so I can come up with something better?

I'm planning to write an article how to do this in detail later on as I believe there is nothing out on the internet with the same goal as me.

[ADMaster]

I used thinstation to attempt something similar about 6-7 years ago. The trouble I had was the size of the chrome / firefox package into the image. I was pxe booting the whole thing so updates could be centralized. The other con with local browsing was the lack of authentication as to who used the pc / browser. All of our thin clients have been removed now, but that project may be worth looking into.

[tech_london]

I used thinstation to attempt something similar about 6-7 years ago. The trouble I had was the size of the chrome / firefox package into the image. I was pxe booting the whole thing so updates could be centralized. The other con with local browsing was the lack of authentication as to who used the pc / browser. All of our thin clients have been removed now, but that project may be worth looking into.

 

The problem I see with using Linux as the base OS is that you cannot have file associations with Remoteapps, so basically if you download a file on the web browser, it will not launch a remote app to open it

 

My idea is that the thinclient will be domain joined and managed, so I can use GPO to manage it fully and enforce any policies. Also I can use Chrome enterprise policies to manage the browser.

 

I'm looking at thinkiosk at the moment to help cleaning out the windows shell with a purpose build interface, but they are asking for subscription license so far and I'm not keen on that. I've been using HP thinclients for year both windows and linux models and never had to pay subscription and I don;t see any benefit with that anyway.

[gshaw]

This may be of interest, a little project a tried out a few months back

 

https://gshaw0.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/build-your-own-thin-ish-client-with-windows-10-ltsb/

[tech_london]

This may be of interest, a little project a tried out a few months back

 

https://gshaw0.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/build-your-own-thin-ish-client-with-windows-10-ltsb/

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing your post. I've been playing with the idea of making a "thinclient OS" myself using a regular W10 install, but the lack of write filter driver has always been a concern for me.

 

W10 iot is just enterprise license, so that means you need softwrae assurance with Microsoft, right? I guess you cannot purchase as perpetual license?

[gshaw]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing your post. I've been playing with the idea of making a "thinclient OS" myself using a regular W10 install, but the lack of write filter driver has always been a concern for me.

 

W10 iot is just enterprise license, so that means you need softwrae assurance with Microsoft, right? I guess you cannot purchase as perpetual license?

 

If you're on EES you already have it

[tech_london]

unfortunately most cases I'm looking is for regular businesses, so hefty software assurance terms I guess for W10 enterprise

[gshaw]

unfortunately most cases I'm looking is for regular businesses, so hefty software assurance terms I guess for W10 enterprise

 

Ahhh yes you're a bit stuck there. Perhaps using something like Faronics Deepfreeze may do the trick at a more affordable price point?

[tech_london]

Ahhh yes you're a bit stuck there. Perhaps using something like Faronics Deepfreeze may do the trick at a more affordable price point?

 

Sounds interesting, thanks for the suggestion. Any idea how affordable is "affordable" for their licenses?