By default, you can copy and paste from the client system to a remote desktop or published application.

If you use the VMware Blast display protocol or the PCoIP display protocol, a Horizon administrator can configure this feature so that copy and paste operations are allowed only from the client system to a remote desktop or published application, or only from a remote desktop or published application to the client system, or both, or neither.

The following data formats are supported.

  • CF_BITMAP
  • CF_DIB
  • CF_HDROP (file type)
  • CF_UNICODETEXT
  • Biff12
  • Art::GVML ClipFormat
  • HTML Format
  • RTF (Rich Text Format)

A Horizon administrator configures the ability to copy and paste by setting agent group policies. Depending on the Horizon server and agent version, a Horizon administrator might also be able to use group policies to restrict clipboard formats during copy and paste operations, or use Smart Policies to control the copy and paste behavior in remote desktops. For more information, see the Configuring Remote Desktop Features in Horizon document.

Copying and Pasting Text and Images

By default, you can copy and paste from the client system to a remote desktop or published application. You can also copy and paste from a remote desktop or published application to the client system, or between two remote desktops or published applications, if a Horizon administrator enables these features.

For example, to copy text on the client system, select the text and press Ctrl+C. To paste the text into a remote desktop, press Ctrl+V in the remote desktop.

This feature has the following limitations.

  • If you are copying formatted text, some of the data is text and some of the data is formatting information. If you copy a large amount of formatted text or text and an image, when you attempt to paste 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 the text and RTF data together use less than the maximum clipboard size, the formatted text is pasted. Often, the RTF data cannot be truncated, so that if the text and formatting use more than the maximum clipboard size amount, the RTF data is discarded, and the plain text is pasted.
  • If you are unable to paste all the formatted text and images that you selected in one operation, you might need to copy and paste smaller amounts in each operation.

Copying and Pasting Files and Folders

By default, you can copy and paste files and folders from your client system to a remote desktop or published application. You can also copy and paste files and folders from a remote desktop or published application to the client system if a Horizon administrator enables these features.

For example, to copy a file on the client system, select the file and press Ctrl+C. To paste the file into a remote desktop, press Ctrl+V in the remote desktop.

This feature requires Horizon Agent 2012 or later on the agent machine.

The client drive redirection feature must be installed on the agent machine to use this feature. For more information, see the Setting Up Virtual Desktops in Horizon or Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon document.

You can disable this feature by enabling the Filter files and folders from incoming clipboard data and Filter files and folders from outgoing clipboard data settings in the Configure clipboard redirection formats group policy setting for the agent machine. For information about the agent group policy settings that control this feature, see the Configuring Remote Desktop Features in Horizon document.

This feature has the following limitations.

  • It might not work for some special folders, such as the desktop folder or a recently accessed file list folder, when you try to copy and paste multiple files because the folder might show files and folders that are not in the same parent folder. This feature can only copy and paste files and folders that are in the same parent folder.
  • It might not work for certain applications, such as WordPad and PowerPoint.
  • Only one copy and paste operation is allowed at a time. Additional copy and paste operations are ignored.