The latest version of Edge now warns that XSLT support is being removed, and classic RDS RDWeb pages may eventually stop displaying correctly. The current portal still works, but it is unclear how long that will last. What approach are others taking: moving to the HTML5 web client, publishing downloadable .rdp files, switching users to the Remote Desktop client, or using another solution? Device and drive redirection, MFA requirements, and compatibility are important considerations.
4 Answers
A practical setup is to publish the HTML5 client as a fallback, but configure the normal resource links to download .rdp files. Users who need full drive or device redirection can open those files in the Remote Desktop client. The HTML5 client is useful from unmanaged devices, but its upload and download features aren’t equivalent to mapped drives, so I wouldn’t make it the only option.
The HTML5 client may not be suitable for every environment. Some deployments still require Kerberos-only authentication, while the web client relies on NTLM in parts of the login process. MFA support can also be a blocker—for example, Duo doesn’t support the newer RDS HTML5 web client in some configurations. In those cases, downloadable .rdp files or a managed Remote Desktop client are safer long-term options than waiting for the legacy XSLT page to disappear.
Suppressing the warning or temporarily downgrading the browser might buy some time, but neither is a good permanent fix. Browser vendors are removing the underlying XSLT functionality, so the durable solution is to move users away from the classic RDWeb interface before it stops rendering.
The Remote Desktop feed is another route. Users can subscribe through the Remote Desktop client or RemoteApp and Desktop Connections using the RDWeb feed URL, and you can deploy the default feed address through Group Policy. Published desktops and RemoteApps then launch as normal RDP sessions with the expected redirection settings. This avoids relying on the old browser-rendered portal, although it may not work in environments where the RDWeb server is protected by an MFA solution that doesn’t support feed subscriptions.
That approach is difficult for us because our RDWeb Access server is protected with Duo, and the feed subscription workflow doesn’t work with that setup.