Can RDP clients launch remote applications and not desktops

Can RDP clients launch a remote application and then only display that application (and not the desktop)? The application would appear fullscreen within the client and if the application were closed the session would end.

Solution 1:

"alternate shell" doesn't seem to work anymore in recent versions of Windows, RemoteApp is the way to go.

remoteapplicationmode:i:1
remoteapplicationname:s:Purpose of the app shown to user...
remoteapplicationprogram:s:C:\...\some.exe
remoteapplicationcmdline:s:

To get this to work under e.g. Windows 10 Professional, one needs to enable some policy:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services]
"fAllowUnlistedRemotePrograms"=dword:00000001

Solution 2:

Using an RDP connection file you can set the alternate shell to be your application; the file syntax is like

alternate shell:s:c:\winnt\system32\notepad.exe

and you pass that as a command-line argument to mstsc.exe; this similar to chrissr's solution, but without affecting every RDP session you launch. A fuller summary of settings here.

Solution 3:

This is quite easily achievable.

1. We need to allow any unlisted programs to start from RDP.
   1.1 Save the script below on your desktop, the extension must end with .reg.
   

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\TSAppAllowList]
    "fDisabledAllowList"=dword:00000001

       1.2 Right click on the file and click Merge, Yes, Ok.

2. Modifying our .rdp file.
   2.1 At the end of our file, add the following code:
   

remoteapplicationmode:i:1
remoteapplicationname:s:This will be the optional description of the app
remoteapplicationprogram:s:Relative or absolute path to the app
                           (Example: taskmgr or C:\Windows\system32\taskmgr.exe)
remoteapplicationcmdline:s:Here you'd put any optional application parameters

remoteapplicationmode:i:1
remoteapplicationname:s:
remoteapplicationprogram:s:mspaint
remoteapplicationcmdline:s:

        2.2 Enter your username and password and connect.

    3. Now you can use your RemoteApp without any issues as if it was running on your local machine 😉