Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access) published RDP connection to a workstation throws the error: “Windows cannot start the RemoteApp program. The following RemoteApp program is not in the list of authorized programs:”

Problem

You’ve published a Remote Desktop Connection to a desktop with the /v:<desktopFQDN> switch but you notice that you are unable to connect to it when you launch the connection through the RemoteApps programs and you are presented with the following error message:

Windows cannot start the RemoteApp program.

The following RemoteApp program is not in the list of authorized programs:

<desktopName>

For assistance, contact your system administrator.

You’ve verified that you’ve configured the Remote Desktop Connection Authorization Policies (RD CAPs) and Remote Desktop Resource Authorization Policies (RD RAPs) has been configured properly.

Solution

The solution to this problem I encountered at a client’s office ended up being a small typo in the Alias field for the published application which surprisingly caused the published remote desktop connection to stop working.  The environment had 2 session host servers and while combing through the configuration we noticed that the configuration for the published application on both of the hosts were identical aside from the Alias field as shown in the following screenshot:

Note that the Alias we wanted to use was RDP_WKS-GAADP01 so the window on the left has the incorrect alias.  Once we updated the session host server with the proper matching Alias, the error went away.