The drag and drop feature works differently depending on how a Horizon administrator configures the feature.

For example, you might be able to drag and drop files, folders, text, rich text, and images between the client system and remote desktops and published applications, or you might be able to drag and drop only files and folders between the client system and remote desktops and published applications.

The following data formats are supported.

  • HTML Format
  • Rich Text Format (RTF)
  • CF_BITMAP
  • CF_DIB
  • CF_UNICODETEXT
  • FileGroupDescriptorW
  • FileGroupDescriptor
  • FileContents

Dragging Text and Images

Depending on how a Horizon administrator has configured the drag and drop feature, you might be able to drag text, images, and other data formats between the client system and an open application in a remote desktop or a published application. For example, you might be able to drag text from a browser on the client system and drop it into the WordPad application in a remote desktop.

By default, you can drag up to 1 MB of data, and you can drag only from the client system to a remote desktop or published application. A Horizon administrator can configure the maximum data size and drag and drop direction.

Dragging Files and Folders

Depending on how a Horizon administrator has configured the drag and drop feature, you might be able to drag and drop files and folders between the Windows client system and remote desktops and published applications. You can drag and drop multiple files and folders at the same time. A progress bar shows the status of the drag and drop operation.

If you drag a file or folder between the client system and a remote desktop, the file or folder appears in the file system on the target system. If you drag a file and drop it into an open application, such as Notepad, the text appears in the application. If you drag a file into a new email message, the file becomes an attachment to the email message.

By default, dragging and dropping from the client system to remote desktops and published applications is enabled, and dragging and dropping from remote desktops and published applications to the client system is disabled. A Horizon administrator can configure the drag and drop direction.

Tips for Using the Drag and Drop Feature

When using the drag and drop feature, follow these tips.

Note: Depending on how a Horizon administrator configures the drag and drop feature, some tips might not apply to your environment.
  • You must use the VMware Blast or PCoIP display protocol.
  • If the relative mouse feature is enabled (select Settings > Enable Relative Mouse after you connect to a remote desktop that supports this feature), you can drag and drop only from the client system to a virtual desktop.
  • When a drag and drop operation is in progress, you cannot start a new drag and drop operation until after the first drag and drop operation has finished.
  • When dragging and dropping, you must use the primary mouse button (by default the left button). Using the secondary mouse button (by default the right button), and pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt plus the primary mouse button, are not supported.
  • You cannot drag and drop between remote desktops.
  • You cannot drag and drop between published applications.
  • If you drag and drop a file or folder between the client system and a remote desktop, the file or folder appears in the file system on the target system. If you drag a file and drop it into an open application, such as Notepad, the text appears in the application. If you drag a file into a new email message, the file becomes an attachment to the email message.
  • You can drag and drop multiple files and folders at the same time. A progress bar shows the status of the drag and drop operation.
  • By default, dragging and dropping from the client system to remote desktops and published applications is enabled, and dragging and dropping from remote desktops and published applications to the client system is disabled.
  • If you are dragging formatted text, some of the data is text and some of the data is formatting information. If you drag a large amount of formatted text, or text and an image, when you attempt to drop the text and image, you might see some or all the plain text, but no formatting or image. This problem occurs because the three types of data are sometimes stored separately. For example, depending on the type of document, images might be stored as images or as RTF data.
  • If you are dragging both plain text and RTF data, and the total data size is less than the drag and drop size threshold, the formatted text is copied. Because RTF data cannot be truncated, if the total data size is greater than the drag and drop size threshold, the RTF data is discarded and only the plain text (or part of the plain text) is copied.
  • If you are unable to drag all the formatted text and images in one operation, you might need to drag smaller amounts in each operation.
  • When you drag a file from the client system and drop it into a published application, you cannot click Save as to copy the file back to a different file on the client system. You can click Save to copy the file back to the same file on the client system.
  • If you drag a file from the client system to an application in a remote desktop, the file is copied to the remote desktop and you can only edit the copy of the file.
  • In a 64-bit Windows machine, if you are unable to drag from Horizon Client to a local 64-bit application, try using the 32-bit version of the local application.
  • If the target local application fails to accept the dragged object, try dragging the object to the local file system and then dragging it to the target local application from local file system.
  • A built-in timeout mechanism exists for fault tolerance.