Windows Server 2019 RDSH is a go
[UPDATE: Microsoft on April 24 released the next preview build of Windows Server 2019, which includes RDSH. “Because of a bug, the RDSH role was missing in previous releases of Windows Server 2019 – this build fixes that,” the company said in a blog post announcing Build 17650.]
Remote Desktop Session Host is coming to the Windows Server 2019 preview and official release, Microsoft has confirmed.
The Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) role was not available in the first preview build of Windows Server 2019 that Microsoft released to the Insiders Program in March. At that time, experts said they did not expect the company to include RDSH when the operating system becomes generally available later this year.
In a statement to SearchVirtualDesktop this week, however, a company spokesperson said: “The RDSH role will be in the preview build available for Insiders soon. Windows Server 2019 will have the [Remote Desktop Services] roles like in Windows Server 2016.”
Mixed messages on Windows Server 2019 RDSH
Up until now, the messaging from Microsoft around RDSH in Windows Server 2019 caused confusion and frustration among some in the IT community. The company declined to officially comment on the future of RDSH in March, although some members of the Windows Server team posted on Twitter about the issue.
Jeff Woolsey, principal program manager for Windows Server, said in March that Remote Desktop Services (RDS) — the set of technologies that provide remote desktop and application access — was “not gone.” Last week, he reiterated that statement, and Scott Manchester, Microsoft group manager for RDS, said RDSH would be coming to the Windows Server 2019 preview in about two weeks.
IT administrators and industry observers wondered why Microsoft had not clarified earlier that Windows Server 2019 would indeed have the RDSH role.
“Microsoft was disconcertingly quiet about the feature omission,” said Jeff Wilhelm, CTO at Envision Technology Advisors, a solutions provider in Pawtucket, R.I. “There was much speculation.”
One possibility is that the code for the RDSH role simply wasn’t ready, and instead of releasing something incomplete or buggy in the preview, Microsoft removed it altogether.
Other speculation focused on a potential new multi-user Windows 10 feature. Microsoft has not commented on that, but it may continue to be a possibility for session-hosted desktops without RDSH.
The news that RDSH will be in the next Insider build should mean “a sigh of relief” for service providers and IT admins, Wilhelm said in an email.
“RDSH provides an important feature to users at many organizations, and the announced improvements, including HTML5 support, are a welcome addition,” he said.