Q. How can I change the name of my Remote Desktop Session Host link in Remote Desktop Web Access to something other than the default name of Remote Desktop?

A. With Remote Desktop Web Access, a list of published applications can be made available to users via a web interface. In addition a link, to create a desktop session on the Remote Desktop Session Host (formerly known as Terminal Server) can also be enabled, with a default name of Remote Desktop.

There might be instances when you want a more specific name, particularly if you have a Remote Desktop Web Access server that's displaying applications or desktops from multiple Remote Desktop servers—in that case, you'd have multiple Remote Desktop links on the desktop and no way of knowing which link pointed to which Remote Desktop Session Host.

Using the registry editor, you can change the name of the link on each Remote Desktop Session Host.

  1. Log on to the Remote Desktop Session Host server as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\TSAppAllowList\RemoteDesktops\TSRemoteDesktop
  3. Double-click Name and set it to the desired name (instead of Remote Desktop). Click OK.
  4. The new name will show in Remote Desktop Web Access after a while. You can also remove the Remote Desktop Session Host from Remote Desktop Web Access as a source then re-add it to make it show up straight away.

Another option is to use the WMI class documented on this Microsoft page to change the Name property.

Discuss this Article 1

rseiler
on May 18, 2011
The 'TSRemoteDesktop' key doesn't exist on an RDWeb that's still in the basic Remote Desktop Session Host configuration. Adding the key and the 'Name' value has no effect on such systems. The way to change it on these systems is by editing RDWebAccess.Config, as shown here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverTS/thread/893f55c1-274a-4845-a191-ca108a153b1c As that file mentions, if you have a more advanced setup (i.e. using the Connection Broker), the place to change it is in the UI of Remote Desktop Connection Manager. The above Registry change may also work on such systems too, I don't know, but I'm not sure that it's ever necessary to use it.

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