With the scanner redirection feature, you can scan information into remote desktops and published applications with scanners that are connected to the local client system. You can also make image adjustments as appropriate. This feature redirects scanning data with a significantly lower bandwidth than can be achieved by using USB redirection.

If a Horizon administrator has configured the scanner redirection feature, and if you use the VMware Blast display protocol or the PCoIP display protocol, a scanner connected to your local client system can be used in a remote desktop or published application. The administrator can configure group policy settings to control the options that available in the VMware Horizon Scanner Redirection Preferences dialog box. For more information, see the Horizon Remote Desktop Features and GPOs document.

Note: If a Horizon administrator configures scanner redirection to use a specific scanner and that scanner is not available, scanner redirection does not work.
Important: Do not connect a scanner from the Connect USB Device menu in Horizon Client. The performance will be unusable.

Scanner redirection supports standard scanning devices that are compatible with TWAIN on Horizon Agent and ICA on Mac client. You must install the scanner device drivers on the local client system. You do not need to install the scanner device drivers on a remote desktop.

When scanning data is redirected to a remote desktop or published application, you cannot access the scanner on the local client computer. Conversely, when a scanner is in use on the local client computer, you cannot access it on the remote desktop or published application.

Scanner redirection also works in nested mode. A user can log in to a Mac and use the Horizon Client for Mac to scan information over to a Windows remote desktop, which can be a virtual desktop or a published desktop. The user can then launch the Horizon Client for Windows on the remote desktop to send that information to another remote desktop. This setup is called nested mode because the Horizon Client connects to a remote desktop that also has Horizon Client installed on it.