Configuring Shortcuts for Entitled Pools

You can configure shortcuts for entitled pools. When an entitled user connects to a Connection Server instance from a Windows client, Horizon Client for Windows places these shortcuts in the Start menu, on the desktop, or both, on the user's client device. You can configure a shortcut when you create or modify a pool.

You must select a category folder, or the root (/) folder, during shortcut configuration. You can add and name your own category folders. You can configure up to four folder levels. For example, you might add a category folder named Office and select that folder for all work-related apps, such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft PowerPoint.

For Start menu shortcuts, on Windows 7 client devices, Horizon Client places category folders and shortcuts in the VMware Applications folder in the Start menu. If you select the root (/) folder for a shortcut, Horizon Client places the shortcut directly in the VMware Applications folder. On Windows 8 and Windows 10 client devices, Horizon Client places category folders and shortcuts in the Apps list. If you select the root (/) folder for a shortcut, Horizon Client places the shortcut directly in the Apps list.

On Mac clients, if Horizon Client for Mac is configured to run published applications from the Applications folder and allow automatic shortcuts from the server, category folders for published applications appear in the Applications folder on the Mac client.

After you create a shortcut, a check mark appears in the App Shortcut column for the pool in Horizon Administrator and Horizon Console.

By default, Horizon Client for Windows prompts entitled users to install shortcuts the first time they connect to a server. You can configure Horizon Client for Windows to install shortcuts automatically, or to never install shortcuts, by modifying the Automatically install shortcuts when configured on the Horizon server group policy setting. For more information, see the VMware Horizon Client for Windows Installation and Setup Guide document.

By default, changes that you make to shortcuts are synchronized on a user's Windows client device each time the user connects to the server. Windows users can disable the shortcut synchronization feature in Horizon Client. For more information, see the VMware Horizon Client for Windows Installation and Setup Guide document.

For Windows users, this feature requires Horizon Client 4.6 for Windows or later on the client system. For Mac users, this feature requires Horizon Client 4.10 for Mac or later on the client system.

You can also configure a shortcut when you create or modify a global entitlement. For information about configuring global entitlements, see the Administering Cloud Pod Architecture in Horizon 7 document.