With Browser Redirection, when an end user opens a website in a Chrome or Microsoft Edge (Chromium) browser in a remote desktop, the web page is rendered on the client system instead of the agent system, and it is displayed as an overlay on the remote browser's viewport. The viewport is the portion of the browser window that contains the content of the web page.

System Requirements for Browser Redirection

To support the Browser Redirection feature, the remote desktops on which you install the agent software must meet certain requirements.

Remote desktops
  • Horizon Agent 7.10 or later must be installed on the virtual desktop or RDS host for published desktops. See the topics about installing Horizon Agent in the Windows Desktops and Applications in Horizon 8 document.
  • The VMware Browser Redirection agent-side group policy settings must be configured on the Active Directory server. See the topics about configuring Browser Redirection in the Horizon Remote Desktop Features and GPOs document.
  • The Chrome browser or Microsoft Edge (Chromium) browser must be installed.
  • The VMware Horizon Browser Redirection extension must be installed in the browser. See the topics about configuring Browser Redirection in the Horizon Remote Desktop Features and GPOs document.
Display protocol for the remote session
  • VMware Blast

Configuring Browser Redirection on the Client

You can configure Browser Redirection on the client system using the Settings window of Horizon Client.

Note: For enrolled Chromebook devices, you can also use the Google Admin console to configure certain Browser Redirection settings. See Client Features.
  1. In Horizon Client, click the Settings toolbar button in the upper-right corner of the desktop and application selector window.
  2. In the Settings window, configure the Browser Redirection settings.
    1. Ensure that you set the toggle for the Browser Redirection feature to the on position.

      By default, the Browser Redirection feature is turned on but you can turn it off if needed.

    2. Specify whether the remote browser can access the client system's camera and microphone.

      By default, access to the camera and microphone is turned off.

      Note: If you do not see the options to configure camera and microphone permissions, an administrator might have hidden these options on the enrolled Chromebook device. For more information, see Client Features.
    3. Specify whether to display a permissions message for camera and microphone access during client sessions.

      By default, the permissions message displays once per Horizon Client session, the first time that a page requiring audio or video input is redirected. In the message, users can choose from the following options.

      • To permit the remote browser to access the client system's camera and microphone for redirected pages, click Allow. This setting remains in effect for the current Horizon Client session and takes priority over the setting configured in step 2b.
      • To block the remote browser from accessing the client system's camera and microphone for redirected pages, click Deny. This setting remains in effect for the current Horizon Client session and takes priority over the setting configured in step 2b.
      • To stop displaying this permissions message, select Do not show this dialog again. The permissions setting specified by the user (Allow or Deny) remains in effect for the current session and all future Horizon Client sessions.
      Note: If an administrator has turned on the Geolocation Redirection feature, Horizon Client also displays a permissions message for geolocation when a redirected page attempts to access geolocation information.

Limitations of the Browser Redirection Feature

The Browser Redirection feature has the following limitations for Chromebook clients.

  • Multiple-monitor displays are not supported.
  • Redirection from published applications is not supported.