Customize the feed for Azure Virtual Desktop users

Article
09/27/2024

You can customize the feed so the RemoteApp and remote desktop resources appear in a recognizable way for your users.

Prerequisites

If you're using either the Azure portal or PowerShell method, you'll need the following things:

An Azure account assigned the Desktop Virtualization Application Group Contributor role.
If you want to use Azure PowerShell locally, see Use Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell with Azure Virtual Desktop to make sure you have the Az.DesktopVirtualization PowerShell module installed.

Customize the display name for a desktop or application

Select the relevant tab for your scenario.

Azure portal
Azure PowerShell

Here's how to customize the display name for a published RemoteApp or desktop using the Azure portal.

Sign in to the Azure portal.
Search for Azure Virtual Desktop.
Under Services, select Azure Virtual Desktop.
On the Azure Virtual Desktop page, select Application groups on the left side of the screen, then select the name of the application group you want to edit.
Select Applications in the menu on the left side of the screen.
Select the application you want to update, then enter a new Display name.
Select Save. The application you edited should now display the updated name. Users see the new name once their client refreshes.

Customize the display name for a RemoteApp

Here's how to customize the display name for a RemoteApp using PowerShell. By default, the display name is the same as the name of the application identifier. Be sure to change the <placeholder> values for your own.

Run PowerShell on your local device.
- If you're using PowerShell locally, first sign in with Azure PowerShell, and then make sure your Azure context is set to the subscription that you want to use.

To retrieve a list of published applications for an application group, run the following PowerShell cmdlet:

$parameters = @{
   ResourceGroupName = "<resourcegroupname>"
   ApplicationGroupName = "<appgroupname>"
}

Get-AzWvdApplication @parameters

To assign a friendly name to a RemoteApp, run the following cmdlet with the required parameters:

$parameters = @{
   ResourceGroupName = "<resourcegroupname>"
   ApplicationGroupName = "<appgroupname>"
   Name = "<applicationname>"
   FriendlyName = "<newfriendlyname>"
}

Update-AzWvdApplication @parameters

Customize the display name for a Remote Desktop

You can change the display name for a published remote desktop for all users by setting a friendly name. If you manually created a host pool and desktop application group through PowerShell, the default friendly name is Session Desktop. If you created a host pool and desktop application group through the GitHub Azure Resource Manager template or the Azure Marketplace offering, the default friendly name is the same as the host pool name. If you have a personal host pool, you can also set a friendly name for individual session hosts. Be sure to change the <placeholder> values for your own.

Run PowerShell on your local device.
- If you're using PowerShell locally, first sign in with Azure PowerShell, and then make sure your Azure context is set to the subscription that you want to use.

To assign a friendly name to the remote desktop resource, run the following PowerShell cmdlet:

$parameters = @{
   ResourceGroupName = "<resourcegroupname>"
   ApplicationGroupName = "<appgroupname>"
   Name = "<applicationname>"
   FriendlyName = "<newfriendlyname>"
}

Update-AzWvdDesktop @parameters

To retrieve the friendly name for the remote desktop resource, run the following PowerShell cmdlet:

$parameters = @{
   ResourceGroupName = "<resourcegroupname>"
   ApplicationGroupName = "<appgroupname>"
   Name = "<applicationname>"
}

Get-AzWvdDesktop @parameters | FL ApplicationGroupName, Name, FriendlyName

Set a friendly name for an individual session host in a personal host pool

For session hosts in a personal host pool, you can change the display name for a desktop for each individual session host by setting its friendly name using PowerShell. By default, the session host friendly name is empty, so all users only see the same desktop display name. There isn't currently a way to set the session host friendly name in the Azure portal.

Run PowerShell on your local device.
- If you're using PowerShell locally, first Sign in with Azure PowerShell, then make sure your Azure context is set to the subscription you want to use.

Run the following command in PowerShell to add or change a session host's friendly name:

$parameters = @{
   HostPoolName = 'HostPoolName'
   Name = 'SessionHostName'
   ResourceGroupName = 'ResourceGroupName'
   FriendlyName = 'SessionHostFriendlyName'
}

Update-AzWvdSessionHost @parameters

To get the session host friendly name, run the following command in PowerShell:

$sessionHostParams = @{
   HostPoolName = 'HostPoolName'
   Name = 'SessionHostName'
   ResourceGroupName = 'ResourceGroupName'
}

Get-AzWvdSessionHost @sessionHostParams | FL Name, AssignedUser, FriendlyName

Customize the feed for Azure Virtual Desktop users

Prerequisites

Customize the display name for a desktop or application

Set a friendly name for an individual session host in a personal host pool

Additional resources