If you’re planning to use OneDrive or File Explorer as a RemoteApp in Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), there’s a key detail you shouldn’t miss: OneDrive sync won’t start automatically unless you explicitly configure it. This post explains the issue and how to solve it.

🧠 The Problem

By default, AVD RemoteApps don’t start background processes like OneDrive.exe. That means:

• User opens the RemoteApp (e.g., File Explorer 🗂️)
• The Explorer shell isn’t fully initialized 🧠
• The OneDrive folder shows up 📁
• But files don’t sync ❌ unless the user manually starts OneDrive

That’s not great for user experience or data integrity.

✅ The Solution

You need to make sure the OneDrive sync engine starts when a user logs in – even if they’re just using a RemoteApp.

📥 Step 1: Import the Missing ADMX Template

To enable enhanced shell experience for RemoteApps, you need access to a special ADMX template that is not included in the standard Microsoft ADMX downloads.

🔧 Copy these two files from a session host:

• C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\terminalserver.admx
• C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\terminalserver.adml

💡 These files only exist on actual AVD session hosts. They’re not in the downloadable ADMX package from Microsoft.

🏛️ Step 2: Add the Template to Your Policy Source

Now that you have the template, you can:

• Copy it into your Central Group Policy Store,
  or
• Import it into Intune as an Imported Administrative Template.

🖥️ Step 3: Enable the Policy Setting

Open Group Policy Management Editor and go to:

Computer Configuration >
  Policies >
    Administrative Templates >
      Windows Components >
        Remote Desktop Services >
          Remote Desktop Session Host >
            Remote Session Environment

Find the policy:

Enable enhanced shell experience for RemoteApp

Double-click it, set it to Enabled, and confirm with OK.

This allows RemoteApp sessions to initialize a more complete shell environment — needed for OneDrive to work properly.

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🪄 Step 4: Ensure OneDrive Starts Automatically

Unfortunately, enabling the policy alone is not enough.
You must also explicitly configure OneDrive to start in the background when a session begins.

🔑 Set the following registry value:

Key	HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Name	OneDrive
Type	REG_SZ
Data	"C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe" /background

This ensures OneDrive is launched automatically for every user session, even when using RemoteApps.

💻 Or use PowerShell:

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" -Name OneDrive -PropertyType String -Value '"C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe" /background' -Force

✅ How to Test OneDrive Sync in a RemoteApp Scenario

Once everything is configured, here’s how you can test that OneDrive works correctly with RemoteApps:

1. 🔗 Connect to your published RemoteApp using the Windows App.
2. 👁️ Look for the OneDrive icon in your local taskbar.
   • Hover over it — the tooltip should say “Remote” to confirm it’s running inside the AVD session.
3. 🔄 Check sync status via the OneDrive Action Center.
   • Sign in if prompted.
   • Make sure files are syncing as expected.
4. 📂 Access OneDrive files from inside the RemoteApp (e.g., File Explorer).
5. ❌ Close the RemoteApp (and any others from the same session). Within a few minutes, OneDrive should automatically exit.

🧪 If all that works: your setup is good to go!

💡 Why It Matters

Without this config, users think their files are syncing—but they’re not.
This leads to:

• ❗ Data loss
• ❓ Confusion
• 🧯 Support tickets

Setting this up correctly ensures:

• 💼 Reliable sync
• 🧘 Zero user interaction
• 🛠️ A clean RemoteApp experience