With the client drive redirection feature, you can share folders and drives on the local client system with remote desktops and published applications.

Shared drives can include mapped drives and USB storage devices.

When using the client drive redirection feature to share a USB drive with a remote desktop, you cannot unplug the device and plug it back in during the remote desktop session.

The client drive redirection feature does not support sharing Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and enterprise file storage.

In a Windows remote desktop, shared folders and drives appear in the This PC folder or in the Computer folder, depending on the Windows operating system version. In a published application, such as Notepad, you can browse to and open a file in a shared folder or drive.

The client drive redirection settings apply to all remote desktops and published applications.

Prerequisites

To share folders and drives with a remote desktop or published application, the client drive redirection feature must be installed in Horizon Agent. The client drive redirection feature is installed by default.

With Horizon Agent 7.9 and later, you can include or exclude folders on devices that have specified vendor and product IDs from being redirected by using the Include Vid/Pid Device and Exclude Vid/Pid Device group policy settings. For more information, see the Configuring Remote Desktop Features in Horizon document.

Procedure

  1. Open the Preferences dialog box and display the Sharing panel.
    Option Description
    From the desktop and application selection window

    Select VMware Horizon Client > Preferences and click Sharing.

    From the Sharing dialog box that appears when you connect to a remote desktop or published application Click the Preferences > Sharing link in the dialog box.
    From within a remote desktop operating system

    Select VMware Horizon Client > Preferences from the menu bar and click Sharing.

  2. Configure the client drive redirection settings.
    Option Action
    Share a specific folder or drive with remote desktops and published applications

    Click the plus (+) button, browse to and select the folder or drive to share, and click Add.

    Note: If a USB device is already connected to a remote desktop or published application with the USB redirection feature, you cannot share a folder on the USB device.
    Stop sharing a specific folder or drive

    Select the folder or drive in the Folder list and click the minus (-) button.

    Give remote desktops and published applications access to files in your home directory

    Select the Allow access to home-directory check box.

    Share USB storage devices with remote desktops and published applications

    Toggle the Allow auto access to removable storage option to on. The client drive redirection feature shares all USB storage devices inserted in your client system and all FireWire and Thunderbolt-connected external drives automatically. Selecting a specific device to share is not necessary.

    Note: USB storage devices already connected to a remote desktop or published application with the USB redirection feature are not shared.

    If this option is toggled off, you can use the USB redirection feature to connect USB storage devices to remote desktops and published applications.

    Do not show the Sharing dialog box when you connect to a remote desktop or published application Select the Do not show dialog when connecting to a desktop or application check box.

    If this check box is deselected, the Sharing dialog box appears the first time you connect to a remote desktop or published application. For example, if you log in to a server and connect to a remote desktop, you see the Sharing dialog box. If you then connect to another remote desktop or published application, you do not see the dialog box. To see the dialog box again, you must disconnect from the server and log in again.

What to do next

Verify that you can see the shared folders from within the remote desktop or published application.

  • In a Windows remote desktop, open File Explorer and look in the This PC folder, or open Windows Explorer and look in the Computer folder, depending on the Windows operating system version.
  • In a published application, select File > Open or File > Save As and navigate to the folder or drive.

The folders and drives that you selected for sharing might use one (or more) of the following naming conventions.

Naming Convention Example
folder-name on desktop-name jsmith on JSMITH-W03
folder-name (drive-number:) jsmith (Z:)
folder-name on desktoptop-name (drive-number:) jsmith on JSMITH-W03 (Z:)

For some Horizon Agent versions, a redirected folder can have two entrances, such as under Devices and drives and Network locations in Windows 10, and both entrances can appear at the same time. If all the volume labels (from A: through Z:) are already in use, the redirected folder has only one entrance.