RemoteApp sickness of 1803

The latest release of Windows 10 (build 1803) has caused a lot of problems for a lot of people using Windows RemoteApp (it's not just our Net-Working Cloud clients!)

The symptoms include, but are not limited to:

  • Menus sometimes not displayed when right-click
  • Drop-down menu's sometimes not displaying
  • Pop-up Windows sometimes not displaying.

The only problem we've so far been able to consistently reproduce is the "Do you want to save changes" dialog box when clossing Excel:

  • Open Excel via RemoteApp
  • Amend a spreadsheet
  • Click the cross to close Excel, then Cancel the "Do you want to save changes" box
  • Then click the cross to close Excel again - the "Do you want to save changes" box takes a long time to appear
  • Again, cancel then close Excel again - box takes even longer to appear!
  • Whilst waiting for the box to appear, hover over the Excel icon on the Task Bar and it will appear immediately!

If you're running Windows 10 build 1803 (click START and type WINVER then press enter), you've probably got the "RemoteApp sickness of 1803" (which is a more serious and prevelant strain of the lesser-known previous affliction "RemoteApp sickness of 1709"!)

Some articles on the internet are suggeting the problem can be resolved by disabling "RemoteFX graphics for RemoteApp", but we just found that caused other problems.

Other articles suggest downgrading the MSTSC.exe and MSTSCAX.dll files to the previous versions (from Windows 10 build 1709), but we are reluctant to do this because of other (similar) issues we've previously reported to Microsoft (and were advised the Remote Desktop Client in Windows 10 1803 would resolve the issues!).

So - we've gone back to the files supplied with Windows 10 version 10240.

If you want to do this yourself, do so at your own risk!
(Or call GWN for assistance!)
GWN take no responsibility for any adverse affects.


OPTION 1

  (Use the "Recovery Options" to "Go back to the previous verion of Windows")


OPTION 2

  is to replace the MSTSC.exe and MSTSCAX.DLL files in c:\windows\system32


Download the files here and save to your desktop, then extract the 2 files.

  1. Close down and sign out of all RemoteApp applications;
  2. Use Windows explorer to navigate to the c:\windows\system32 folder
  3. Take a backup copy of the 2 files MSTSC.exe and MSTSCAX.dll
  4. Right-click on the (original) MSTSC.exe file and choose PROPERTIES then select the SECURITY tab and click the ADVANCED button
  5. Click the CHANGE link (on the 2nd-line down, next to "OWNER")
  6. Enter the appropriate username in "Enter the object name to select" box, click OK. Click OK on the next 2 windows to return to File Explorer
  7. Right-click the MSTSC.exe file again and choose PROPERTIES then select the SECURITY tab again. Click the EDIT button next to "To change permissions..." and add your account, or amend an existing account / group to give yourself "Full Control" permissions
  8. Repeat the steps above for the MSTSCAX.dll file
  9. Rename both files (e.g: add .OLD to the end)
  10. Copy the 2 files downloaded from the above link into the c:\windows\system32 folder

RemoteApp applications should now work as they're supposed to...

See this Microsoft forum for further detils & updates on this issue


  • UPDATE (12th June 2018) - Microsoft have released an update (KB4284835) that replaces the MSTSC.EXE file (with the file version 10.0.17134.112) but not the MSTSCAX.DLL file - so anyone with the work-around above will now receive the error message "The Remote Desktop Services ActiveX control (mstscax.dll) does not match the version of the client shell". Unfortunately, using the correct MSTSCAX.DLL file for this version just reinstates the origional problems outlined above...
    So, for now, Microsoft advise uninstalling this update, or reverting the MSTSC.EXE file back to the previous version... again...
  • UPDATE (26th June 2018) - Microsoft have released an update (KB4284848) that includes both MSTSC.EXE (Ver. 10.0.17134.112) & MSTSCAX.DLL (Ver. 10.0.17134.137) files and they appear to solve the problems!
    Download the latest updates via the Windows Update app, or manually from the Update Catalog or just the RDP files here and follow the same steps as above.

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