On a mobile device, the Horizon Client Tools include buttons for displaying the onscreen keyboard, virtual touchpad, configuration settings, and a virtual keypad for arrow keys and function keys.

When you use a remote desktop or published application in full-screen mode, the Horizon Client Tools radial menu icon appears at the right edge of the window. You can drag the radial menu icon to relocate it. Tap to expand the radial menu and display icons for each tool, which you can tap to select. Tap outside the tool icons to collapse the icons back into the radial menu icon.

If the remote desktop or published application is not in full-screen mode, a toolbar appears on the right side of the menu bar at the top of the window. You can tap the Full Screen icon on the toolbar to enter full-screen mode. When you are in full-screen mode, you can tap a similar icon in the radial menu to exit full-screen mode.

The radial menu includes several tools.

Table 1. Radial Menu Icons
Icon Description
Radial menu icon. Horizon Client Tools radial menu
Disconnect icon. Disconnect
Keyboard icon. Onscreen keyboard (toggles to show or hide)
Settings icon. Settings
Navigation icon. Navigation keys
Touchpad icon. Virtual touchpad
Gesture help icon. Gesture help
Exit full-screen mode icon. Exit full-screen mode

Onscreen Keyboard

The onscreen keyboard has more keys than the standard onscreen keyboard, for example, Control keys and function keys are available. To display the onscreen keyboard, tap the screen with three fingers at the same time or tap the Keyboard icon.

If you are using a remote desktop or published application in full-screen mode, tap Keyboard icon in the Horizon Client Tools radial menu. If you are not using full-screen mode, tap the Keyboard icon on the Horizon Client toolbar.

You can also use the feature that displays the onscreen keyboard whenever you tap a text field, such as in a note or new contact. If you then tap in an area that is not a text field, the keyboard is dismissed.

To turn this feature on or off, use the Keyboard popup and Keyboard dismiss options. To display these options when you are using a remote desktop or published application in full-screen mode, tap the Horizon Client Tools radial menu icon, tap the gear icon, and tap Keyboard. If you are not using full-screen mode, tap Settings in the menu in the upper-right corner of the Horizon Client toolbar. If you are not connected to a remote desktop or published application, tap the Settings (gear) icon in the upper-right corner of the desktop and application selector window.

Note: On Kindle Fire tablets, tapping with three fingers does not display the onscreen keyboard. You can instead tap the Keyboard icon on the Horizon Client toolbar to display the onscreen keyboard.

Even if you use an external keyboard, a one-row onscreen keyboard might still appear, which contains function keys, and the Ctrl, Alt, Win, and arrow keys. Some external keyboards do not have all these keys.

Sending a String of Characters

From the onscreen keyboard, tap the pen icon on the left side of the Ctrl key to display the local input buffer. Text that you type into this text box is not sent to an application until you tap Send. For example, if you open an application such as Notepad and tap the pen icon, the text that you type does not appear in the Notepad application until you tap Send.

Use this feature if you have a poor network connection. That is, use this feature if, when you type a character, the character does not immediately appear in the application. With this feature, you can quickly type up to 1,000 characters and then either tap Send or tap Return to have all 1,000 characters appear at once in the application.

Navigation Keys

Tap the Ctrl/Page icon in the Horizon Client Tools or onscreen keyboard to display the navigation keys. These keys include Page Up, Page Down, arrow keys, function keys, and other keys that you often use in Windows environments, such as Alt, Del, Shift, Ctrl, Win, and Esc. You can press and hold arrow keys for continuous key strokes. For a picture of the Ctrl/Page icon, see the table at the beginning of this topic.

Use the Shift key on this keypad when you need to use key combinations that include the Shift key, such as Ctrl+Shift. To tap a combination of these keys, such as Ctrl+Alt+Shift, first tap the onscreen Ctrl key. After the Ctrl key turns blue, tap the onscreen Alt key. After the Alt key turns blue, tap the onscreen Shift key. A single onscreen key is provided for the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Onscreen Touchpad and Full-Screen Touchpad

The virtual touchpad can be either regular-size, to resemble a touchpad on a laptop computer, or full screen, so that the entire device screen is a touchpad.

By default, when you tap the touchpad icon, you can touch anywhere on the screen to move the mouse pointer. The screen becomes a full-screen touchpad.

  • Moving your finger around the touchpad creates a mouse pointer that moves around the remote desktop or published application.
  • You can use the regular-size and full-screen virtual touchpad for single-clicking and double-clicking.
  • The regular touchpad also contains left-click and right-click buttons.
  • You can tap with two fingers and then drag to scroll vertically.

You can drag the regular-size virtual touchpad to the side of the device so that you can use your thumb to operate the touchpad while you are holding the device.

You can make the virtual touchpad resemble the touchpad on a laptop, including right-click and left-click buttons, by setting the Full screen touchpad setting to off. If you are using the remote desktop or published application in full-screen mode, tap the Horizon Client Tools radial menu icon, tap the gear icon, tap Touch, and deselect the Full screen touchpad setting.

To adjust how quickly the pointer moves when you use the touchpad, adjust the Touchpad sensitivity option. If you are using the remote desktop or published application in full-screen mode, tap the Horizon Client Tools radial menu icon, tap the gear icon, tap Touch, tap Touchpad sensitivity, and drag the slider.

If you are not using full-screen mode, Settings is in the menu in the upper-right corner of the Horizon Client toolbar. If you are not connected to a remote desktop or published application, tap the Settings (gear) icon in the upper-right corner of the Horizon Client window.