With the Unity Touch feature, tablet and smart phone users can quickly navigate to a remote desktop application or file from a Unity Touch sidebar. Although end users can specify which favorite applications appear in the sidebar, for added convenience, administrators can configure a default list of favorite applications.

If you use floating-assignment desktop pools, the favorite applications and favorite files that end users specify will be lost when they disconnect from a desktop unless you enable roaming user profiles in Active Directory.

The default list of favorite applications list remains in effect when an end user first connects to a desktop that is enabled with Unity Touch. However, if the user configures his or her own favorite application list, the default list is ignored. The user's favorite application list stays in the user's roaming profile and is available when the user connects to different machines in a floating or dedicated pool.

If you create a default list of favorite applications and one or more of the applications are not installed in the remote desktop operating system, or the paths to these applications are not found in the Start menu, the applications do not appear in the list of favorites. You can use this behavior to set up one master default list of favorite applications that can be applied to multiple virtual machine images with different sets of installed applications.

For example, if Microsoft Office and Microsoft Visio are installed on one virtual machine, and Windows Powershell and VMware vSphere Client are installed on a second virtual machine, you can create one list that includes all four applications. Only the installed applications appear as default favorite applications on each respective desktop.

You can use different methods to specify a default list of favorite applications:

  • Add a value to the Windows registry on the virtual machines in the desktop pool
  • Create an administrative installation package from the Horizon Agent installer and distribute the package to the virtual machines
  • Run the Horizon Agent installer from the command line on the virtual machines
Note: Unity Touch assumes that shortcuts to applications are located in the Programs folder in the Start menu. If any shortcut is located outside of the Programs folder, attach the prefix Programs to the shortcut path. For example, Windows Update.lnk is located in the ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu folder. To publish this shortcut as a default favorite application, add the prefix Programs to the shortcut path. For example: "Programs/Windows Update.lnk".

Prerequisites

  • Verify that Horizon Agent is installed on the virtual machine.
  • Verify that you have administrative rights on the virtual machine. For this procedure, you might need to edit a registry setting.
  • If you have floating-assignment desktop pools, use Active Directory to set up roaming user profiles. Follow the instructions provided by Microsoft.

    Users of floating-assignment desktop pools will be able to see their list of favorite applications and favorite files every time they log in.

Procedure

  • (Optional) Create a default list of favorite applications by adding a value to the Windows registry.
    1. Open regedit and navigate to the HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware Unity registry setting.
      On a 64-bit virtual machine, navigate to the HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Unity directory.
    2. Create a string value called FavAppList.
    3. Specify the default favorite applications.

      Use the following format to specify the shortcut paths to the applications that are used in the Start menu. 

      path-to-app-1|path-to-app-2|path-to-app-3|…
      For example: 
      Programs/Accessories/Accessibility/Speech Recognition.lnk|Programs/VMware/VMware vSphere Client.lnk|Programs/Microsoft Office/Microsoft Office 2010 Tools/Microsoft Office 2010 Language Preferences.lnk
  • (Optional) Create a default list of favorite applications by creating an administrative installation package from the Horizon Agent installer.
    1. From the command line, use the following format to create the administrative installation package. 
      VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /a /v"/qn TARGETDIR=""a network share to store the admin install package"" UNITY_DEFAULT_APPS=""the list of default favorite apps that should be set in the registry"""
      For example: 
      VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /a /v"/qn TARGETDIR=""\\foo-installer-share\ViewFeaturePack\"" UNITY_DEFAULT_APPS=""Programs/Accessories/Accessibility/Ease of Access.lnk|Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Character Map.lnk|Programs/Accessories/Windows PowerShell/Windows PowerShell.lnk|Programs/Internet Explorer (64-bit).lnk|Programs/Google Chrome/Google Chrome.lnk|Programs/iTunes/iTunes.lnk|Programs/Microsoft Office/Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010.lnk|Programs/PuTTY/PuTTY.lnk|Programs/Skype/Skype.lnk|Programs/WebEx/Productivity Tools/WebEx Settings.lnk|"""
    2. Distribute the administrative installation package from the network share to the desktop virtual machines by using a standard Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) deployment method that is employed in your organization.
  • (Optional) Create a default list of favorite applications by running the Horizon Agent installer on a command line directly on a virtual machine.
    Use the following format. 
    VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn UNITY_DEFAULT_APPS=""the list of default favorite apps that should be set in the registry"""
    Note: The preceding command combines installing Horizon Agent with specifying the default list of favorite applications. You do not have to install Horizon Agent before you run this command.

What to do next

If you performed this task directly on a virtual machine (by editing the Windows registry or installing Horizon Agent from the command line), you must deploy the newly configured virtual machine. You can create a snapshot or make a template and create a desktop pool, or recompose an existing pool. Or you can create an Active Directory group policy to deploy the new configuration.