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qvm app

Launches an individual application inside the guest VM and displays it as a seamless, native window on the host desktop using FreeRDP and Windows RemoteApp (RAIL).

Usage

qvm app <name> <app_path> [args...]

Arguments

  • <name>: The VM name.
  • <app_path>: The full path to the executable inside the guest (e.g. C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe or notepad.exe).
  • [args...]: Optional arguments to pass to the guest application.

What It Does

  1. Checks if the VM is running. If stopped, automatically starts it in headless mode (--no-iso --headless).
  2. Discovers the VM’s assigned RDP port (from rdp.port).
  3. Waits for the guest RDP service to become responsive.
  4. Detects the best available FreeRDP client on the host (wlfreerdp on Wayland, falling back to xfreerdp).
  5. Resolves credentials from environment variables (QVM_RDP_USER, QVM_RDP_PASS) or vm.conf (RDP_USER, RDP_PASS), defaulting to $USER and prompting securely if password is not preset.
  6. Launches the application in seamless RemoteApp mode with clipboard integration and dynamic resolution matching.

Guest Setup (One-time)

To allow RemoteApp execution, configure the Windows guest:

1. Enable Remote Desktop

Open Settings → System → Remote Desktop and toggle On.

2. Allow RemoteApps

By default, Windows only permits pre-registered RemoteApps. Run the following command in an Administrator Command Prompt or PowerShell inside the guest to allow launching any unlisted executable:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\TSAppAllowList" /v fDisabledAllowList /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

(Alternatively, open-source tools such as RemoteApp Tool can be used to generate specific allowed application lists).

Examples

# Launch Notepad
qvm app win11 notepad.exe

# Launch Notepad with an argument
qvm app win11 notepad.exe "C:\Users\Public\notes.txt"

# Launch an installed third-party application
qvm app win11 "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe"

# Launch with credentials specified in environment
QVM_RDP_USER="Admin" QVM_RDP_PASS="secret" qvm app win11 cmd.exe