To support the Browser Redirection feature, the remote desktops and client systems on which you install the agent and client software must meet certain requirements. You can also configure optional feature settings in the ~/.vmware/config, /usr/lib/vmware/config, or /etc/vmware/config file on the Linux client system.

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

Client system
Remote desktop
  • 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 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 on the agent machine in the Horizon Remote Desktop Features and GPOs document.
Display protocol for the remote session
  • PCoIP
  • VMware Blast

Limitations of the Browser Redirection Feature

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

  • Redirection from published applications is not supported.

Configuration Settings for Browser Redirection

You can configure the Browser Redirection feature by specifying optional configuration settings described in the following table. To configure a setting, edit one of these configuration files on the Linux client system:

  • ~/.vmware/config
  • /usr/lib/vmware/config
  • /etc/vmware/config

If you do not configure any of these settings, the Browser Redirection feature uses the default configuration.

Setting Description
html5mmr.bcr.enableBCR Use this option to specify the activation state of the Browser Redirection feature. Specify "TRUE" to activate the feature, or "FALSE" to deactivate it. The default is "TRUE".
html5mmr.bcr.mediaStreamEnabled This option controls whether to allow use of the client webcam with the Browser Redirection feature. Specify "TRUE" to allow or "FALSE" to block use of the webcam. The default is "TRUE".
html5mmr.bcr.ignoreCerts This option controls whether the Browser Redirection feature allows users to visit websites that have certificate errors. Specify "TRUE" to allow or "FALSE" to block users from proceeding to websites with certificate errors. The default is "FALSE".
html5mmr.bcr.useCacheEnabled This option controls whether the Browser Redirection feature saves cookies. When cookies are saved, users can stay logged in to websites across remote sessions. Specify "TRUE" to save cookies or "FALSE" to not save cookies. The default is "TRUE".