GM, how can i improve this? is there anyway to automatically open w/o user interaction? also, i read it could cause drive space issues b/c there is no mechanism to clean them up. is that true? what are you doing to simplify this whole process for the user? thanks!

You should try to use the Remote Desktop Client from windows store. this lets you add a RD Gateway

@newbie1998 I went through this last year. By default, MSTSC will prompt you for creds every time when you open an RDP file.. This is by design (supposedly) as its more secure. There is a way to save the creds in the Windows Credential Store (again, supposedly). I never got that to work consistently. Then I found out that all our 120K users do have to enter the creds each and every time. As for cleaning up the RDP files, you're right, it will not clean it up like the ICA file is cleaned up. The thing to tell you client, that there is a trade off for not paying the Citrix 'tax'. They can't expect to save $1000's and get the exact set of features.

Thanks guys!. this is a pain. i let the customer know this morning.

These are the limitations of not using an add-on. If they don't want to pay Citrix or Omnissa prices, check out Parallels.

One of my guys is working on coding a solution. We have a pure RDS farm and we automate testing with LoginVSI. If we come up with something, we'll let you know