Manage application groups using PowerShell or the Azure CLI

Important

This content applies to Azure Virtual Desktop with Azure Resource Manager Azure Virtual Desktop objects. If you're using Azure Virtual Desktop (classic) without Azure Resource Manager objects, see this article.

The default application group created for a new Azure Virtual Desktop host pool also publishes the full desktop. In addition, you can create one or more RemoteApp application groups for the host pool. Follow this tutorial to create a RemoteApp application group and publish individual Start menu apps.

In this tutorial, learn how to:

• Create a RemoteApp group.
• Grant access to RemoteApp programs.

Prerequisites

Azure PowerShell

This article assumes you've followed the instructions in Set up the PowerShell module to set up your PowerShell module and sign in to your Azure account.

Azure CLI

This article assumes you've already set up your environment for the Azure CLI, and that you've signed in to your Azure account.

• Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.

  

• If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.

  • If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.

  • When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.

  • Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Create a RemoteApp group

Azure PowerShell

To create a RemoteApp group with PowerShell:

1. Run the following PowerShell cmdlet to create a new empty RemoteApp application group.

   New-AzWvdApplicationGroup -Name <appgroupname> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname> -ApplicationGroupType "RemoteApp" -HostPoolArmPath '/subscriptions/SubscriptionId/resourcegroups/ResourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/hostPools/HostPoolName'-Location <azureregion>
   

2. (Optional) To verify that the application group was created, you can run the following cmdlet to see a list of all application groups for the host pool.

   Get-AzWvdApplicationGroup -Name <appgroupname> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname>
   

3. Run the following cmdlet to get a list of Start menu apps on the host pool's virtual machine image. Write down the values for FilePath, IconPath, IconIndex, and other important information for the application that you want to publish.

   Get-AzWvdStartMenuItem -ApplicationGroupName <appgroupname> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname> | Format-List | more
   

   The output should show all the Start menu items in a format like this:

   AppAlias            : access
   CommandLineArgument :
   FilePath            : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\MSACCESS.EXE
   FriendlyName        :
   IconIndex           : 0
   IconPath            : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Root\VFS\Windows\Installer\{90160000-000F-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}\accicons.exe
   Id                  : /subscriptions/resourcegroups/providers/Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/applicationgroups/startmenuitems/Access
   Name                : 0301RAG/Access
   Type                : Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/applicationgroups/startmenuitems
   
   AppAlias            : charactermap
   CommandLineArgument :
   FilePath            : C:\windows\system32\charmap.exe
   FriendlyName        :
   IconIndex           : 0
   IconPath            : C:\windows\system32\charmap.exe
   Id                  : /subscriptions/resourcegroups/providers/Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/applicationgroups/startmenuitems/Character Map
   Name                : 0301RAG/Character Map
   Type                : Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/applicationgroups/startmenuitems
   

4. Run the following cmdlet to install the application based on AppAlias. AppAlias becomes visible when you run the output from step 3.

   New-AzWvdApplication -AppAlias <appalias> -GroupName <appgroupname> -Name <RemoteAppName> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname> -CommandLineSetting <DoNotAllow|Allow|Require>
   

5. (Optional) Run the following cmdlet to publish a new RemoteApp program to the application group created in step 1.

   New-AzWvdApplication -GroupName <appgroupname> -Name <RemoteAppName> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname> -Filepath <filepath> -IconPath <iconpath> -IconIndex <iconindex> -CommandLineSetting <DoNotAllow|Allow|Require>
   

6. To verify that the app was published, run the following cmdlet.

   Get-AzWvdApplication -GroupName <appgroupname> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname>
   

7. Repeat steps 1–5 for each application that you want to publish for this application group.

8. Run the following cmdlet to grant users access to the RemoteApp programs in the application group.

   New-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName <userupn> -RoleDefinitionName "Desktop Virtualization User" -ResourceName <appgroupname> -ResourceGroupName <resourcegroupname> -ResourceType 'Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/applicationGroups'
   

Azure CLI

Note

Azure CLI currently does not provide commands to get Start Menu apps, nor to create a new RemoteApp program or publish it to the application group. Use Azure PowerShell.

To create a RemoteApp group with the Azure CLI:

1. Use the az desktopvirtualization applicationgroup create command to create a new RemoteApp application group:

   az desktopvirtualization applicationgroup create --name "MyApplicationGroup" \
      --resource-group "MyResourceGroup" \
      --location "MyLocation" \
      --application-group-type "RemoteApp" \
      --host-pool-arm-path "/subscriptions/MySubscriptionGUID/resourceGroups/MyResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization/hostpools/MyHostPool"
      --tags tag1="value1" tag2="value2" \
      --friendly-name "Friendly name of this application group" \
      --description "Description of this application group" 
   

2. (Optional) To verify that the application group was created, you can run the following command to see a list of all application groups for the host pool.

   az desktopvirtualization applicationgroup list \
      --resource-group "MyResourceGroup"
   

Next steps

If you came to this How-to guide from our tutorials, check out Create a host pool to validate service updates. You can use a validation host pool to monitor service updates before rolling them out to your production environment.