The Applications module in WorkAnywhere works as a project
management tool to help administrators keep track of installed applications,
who they are assigned to and how they're configured.
What's New in the Applications Module
itopia enhanced the Applications Module to allow applications to be defined per-collection rather than per-deployment. This means that when creating or editing an application, you can scope the application to specific Collection Pools as well as to Users and Groups. This helps ensure that shortcuts are only published for users in specific Collection Pools and helps prevent confusion when connecting through the RD Web portal or the RD Web client. Note that selecting Collection Pools, users, or groups only has an effect if the Application is configured to be published and/or restricted (see below).
Assigning An Application To A Collection Pool
Assigning An Application to all Collection Pool users, individual users, or Security
Groups
Adding Applications
Before adding the application to the Application Module, it should first be installed on the User Session Servers that belong to the Collection Pool you’re going to assign it to.
To add an Application, navigate to the Application Module, under the Cloud
Desktops section in the WorkAnywhere portal.
Click the Create button.
Fill out the form as desired.
In the Executable Details section, you can click on Browse to auto-populate the
.exe files on your desired server
Note: WorkAnywhere supports published .EXE, .BAT, and .PS1 files as applications; script files will be automatically configured to launch with their respective shell.
After you have browsed for the .executable file, you can choose who you would
like to publish the application for. By default, the application will be published to
all of the users in the Collection Pool it's been assigned to.
If you would like to specify which Users/Security Groups you would like to assign
the application to, you will first have to remove the All Collection Users group,
and then assign Users/Security Groups as you see fit.
Click Save when complete.
Once complete, you will see the application with the Installed status as indicated
by the green circle to the left of the application name.
Pro tip: Many modern applications can be installed using package managers such as Chocolatey or Microsoft WinGet. Using a package manager makes it easy to automate the installation and updating of applications.
Application restriction
At the time of writing, we have retired this application restriction in the WorkAnywhere portal, but we will introduce a replacement in the future. In the meantime, you can use AppLocker to restrict applications for specific users. Click here to learn more.
Uninstalling an application
To uninstall an application, go to the Applications module under the Cloud
Desktops section and double click on the app you will be removing. In this
example, we’ll be removing the Chrome Default Pool application
Click Delete
Wait about 5-10 minutes, and the application will be removed. Keep in mind that
deleting the application from the Applications Module only removes it from the
WorkAnywhere portal. If you want it removed from your servers, you will have to either:
Remove the application from the image assigned to that Collection Pool
and redeploy
Connect to each user session server that has the application installed and
manually uninstall it.
Removing the application from the WorkAnywhere portal only removes the ability for it to be
managed from the portal. It will still exist on the actual server(s).
Supported Application File Types
WorkAnywhere supports published .EXE, .BAT, and .PS1 files as applications; script files will be
automatically configured to launch with their respective shell.