To connect to a remote desktop or published application, you must provide the name of a server and supply credentials for your user account.

Before you have end users access their remote desktops and published applications, test that you can connect to a remote desktop or published application from a client device. You might need to specify a server and supply credentials for your user account.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain login credentials, such as a user name and password, RSA SecurID user name and passcode, RADIUS authentication credentials, or smart card personal identification number (PIN).
  • Obtain the NETBIOS domain name for logging in. For example, you might use mycompany rather than mycompany.com.
  • Perform the administrative tasks described in Preparing Connection Server for Horizon Client.
  • If you are outside the corporate network and require a VPN connection to access remote desktops and published applications, verify that the client device is set up to use a VPN connection and turn on that connection.
  • Verify that you have the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server that provides access to the remote desktop or published application. Underscores (_) are not supported in server names. If the port is not 443, you also need the port number.
  • If you plan to use the RDP display protocol to connect to a remote desktop, verify that the AllowDirectRDP agent group policy setting is enabled. For information, see the Configuring Remote Desktop Features in Horizon document.
  • Configure the certificate checking mode for the certificate presented by the server. To determine which mode to use, see Setting the Certificate Checking Mode in Horizon Client.

Procedure

  1. If a VPN connection is required, turn on the VPN.
  2. Start Horizon Client.
  3. (Optional) To log in as the currently logged-in Windows domain user, click the Options button in the upper-right corner of the menu bar and select Log in as current user.
    This setting is available only if the Log in as current user feature is installed on the client system.
  4. Connect to a server.
    Option Action
    Connect to a new server

    Double-click the + Add Server button, or click New Server on the menu bar, enter the name of a server, and click Connect.

    Connect to an existing server Double-click the server icon, or right-click the server icon and select Connect.
    Connections between Horizon Client and the server always use TLS. The default port for TLS connections is 443. If the server is not configured to use the default port, use the format servername:port, for example, view.company.com:1443.
    You might see a message that you must confirm before the login dialog box appears.
  5. If you are prompted for RSA SecurID credentials or RADIUS authentication credentials, enter the credentials and click Continue.
  6. Enter the credentials of a user who is entitled to use at least one remote desktop or published application, select the domain, and click Login.
    If you enter the user name as username@domain, Horizon Client treats it as a user principal name (UPN) and the Domain drop-down menu is disabled.

    If the Domain drop-down menu is hidden, you must enter the user name as username@domain or domain\username.

  7. If Horizon Client prompts you to install published applications or remote desktops to the Windows Start menu, click Yes or No.
    This prompt can appear the first time you connect to a server on which shortcuts have been configured for published applications or remote desktops. If you click Yes, Start menu shortcuts are installed on the client system for those published applications or remote desktops, if you are entitled to use them. If you click No, Start menu shortcuts are not installed.

    A Horizon administrator can configure the Automatically install shortcuts when configured on the Horizon server group policy setting to prompt end users to install shortcuts (the default), install shortcuts automatically, or never install shortcuts.

  8. (Optional) To configure display settings for a remote desktop, right-click the remote desktop icon and select Settings.
    Option Action
    Select a display protocol If a Horizon administrator has allowed it, use the Connect Via drop-down menu to select the display protocol.
    Select a display layout Use the Display drop-down menu to select a window size or to use multiple monitors.
  9. To connect to a remote desktop or published application, double-click the remote desktop or published application icon in the desktop and application selection window.
    If you are connecting to a published desktop, and if the published desktop is already set to use a different display protocol, you cannot connect immediately. Horizon Client prompts you to use the set protocol or to log off so that Horizon Client can connect with a different display protocol.

Results

After you are connected, the remote desktop or published application opens.

If you are entitled to more than one remote desktop or published application on the server, the desktop and application selector window remains open so that you can connect to multiple remote desktops and published applications.

If the client drive redirection feature is enabled, the Sharing dialog box appears and you can allow or deny access to files on the local file system. For more information, see Share Local Folders and Drives.

The first time you connect to a server, Horizon Client saves a shortcut to the server on the Horizon Client home window. You can double-click this server shortcut the next time you need to connect to the server.

If authentication to the server fails, or if the client cannot connect to the remote desktop or published application, perform the following tasks:

  • Verify that the certificate for the server is working properly. If it is not, in Horizon Console, you might also see that the agent on remote desktops is unreachable. These symptoms indicate additional connection problems caused by certificate problems.
  • Verify that the tags set on the Connection Server instance allow connections from this user. See the Horizon Administration document.
  • Verify that the user is entitled to access this remote desktop or published application. See the Setting Up Virtual Desktops in Horizon or Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon document.
  • If you are using the RDP display protocol to connect to a remote desktop, verify that the remote desktop operating system allows remote desktop connections.

What to do next

Configure startup settings. If you do not want to require end users to provide the host name of the server, or if you want to configure other startup settings, use a command-line option to create a remote desktop shortcut. See Running Horizon Client From the Command Line.