My solution is a little unorthodox and probably expensive for others but...
I need to use RDP to access one of our apps via the WAN. Since I have to buy the RDP licenses anyhow, I’m just going to convert all the non-laptop machines to dedicated terminal clients and move all the desktops to the server. At least for now, MS isn’t pulling as many shenanigans on the server products.
It simplifies control and app deployment as another benefit. I’ll probably use a linux-based terminal client emulator, so Windows 10 will be the last in a long line of MS desktop products (except for laptops) in my organization.
But if I didn’t already need to purchase the RDP licenses, it would cost a fair amount (although I’m not sure if it would be less than Enterprise, to be honest, since pricing on Enterprise isn’t easy to find).
I expect I won’t be the only one going this route, so I also expect MS to jack up the cost of RDP licensing in the future. I’m at the point where, if my main application didn’t require Windows, I’d bail on the whole company and switch to Linux. I could accomplish everything I can with Windows at a fraction of the cost and complexity.
I’m just a home user- don’t do anything too taxing- mainly jjst use the computer for photography processing, artwork- photoshop etc- so the switch to linux was a no brainer for me once i learned how to dual boot- i probably wouldn’t have mae the switch though if I hadn’t found one that was close enough to how i like to work- one that looked similar to windows 7- I tried many ‘flavors’ of linux, but found linux mint cinnamon edition fit the bill for me- super easy to install and set up=- Everything worked pretty much right out of the gate- printers- mouse keyboard- a new usb 3 card- video cards etc- no worries-
As an added bonus- there is a program called ‘Systemback” that takes complete system wide snapshots of the current system, and can turn those snapshots into bootable backup/restore .iso disk- Super easy to do- with the snapshots- if anything ever goes wrong- just roll the system back easy peasy- Had an issue where grub got corrupted once,- just reinstalled from the current backup disk and was good to go in about 20 minutes- I know it can be done in windows too- but i love that linux has this capability too-
Could the program you need to use in windows be run in a VM? Or does it rely on the need for a dedicated graphics card?- I Wish there was an easy way for VM’s to use the host os’s graphics card- I’d dispense with hte dual boot system altogether and just run windows 7 and my photoshop and windows games in a VM- There is something called passthrough where a VM can use the host graphics card- - but it’s super complicated- I got a brain ache trying to figure it out- never did attempt it though-