Connect to a Remote Desktop or Application

After logging in to View Connection Server, you can connect to the remote desktops and applications that you are authorized to use.

About this task

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

To use remote applications, you must connect to View Connection Server 6.0 or later.

Prerequisites

• Obtain the credentials you need to log in, such as a user name and password, RSA SecurID user name and passcode, RADIUS authentication user name and passcode, or smart card personal identification number (PIN).

• Obtain the NETBIOS domain name for logging in. For example, you would 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 are not using a security server to access the remote desktop, verify that your client device is set up to use a VPN connection and turn that connection on.

  Important:

  VMware recommends using a security server rather than a VPN.

• Verify that you have the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server that provides access to the remote desktop or application. Note that underscores (_) are not supported in server names. You also need the port number if the port is not 443.

• 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.

• If your administrator has allowed it, you can configure the certificate checking mode for the SSL certificate presented by View Connection Server. To determine which mode to use, see Certificate Checking Modes for Horizon Client.

Procedure

1. Double-click the VMware Horizon Client desktop shortcut or click Start > Programs > VMware > VMware Horizon Client.
2. (Optional) To set the certificate checking mode, click the Options button in the menu bar and select Configure SSL.

   You can configure this option only if your administrator has allowed it.

3. (Optional) To log in as the currently logged-in Windows domain user, click the Options button in the menu bar and select Log in as current user.

   This option is available if the Log in as current user module is installed on your client system, and if your administrator has enabled the global setting for this feature. Some companies choose not to enable this feature.

4. Double-click the + Add Server button if no servers have yet been added, or click the + New Server button in the menu bar, and enter the name of View Connection Server or a security server, and click Connect.

   Connections between Horizon Client and View Connection Server always use SSL. The default port for SSL connections is 443. If View Connection Server is not configured to use the default port, use the format shown in this example: view.company.com:1443.

   You might see a message that you must confirm before the login dialog box appears.

   Note:

   After a successful connection is made, an icon for this server is saved to the Horizon Client home screen. The next time you open Horizon Client to connect to this server, you can double-click the icon, or, if you use only this one server, you can right-click the icon for the server and select Autoconnect to this Server from the context menu.

5. If you are prompted for RSA SecurID credentials or RADIUS authentication credentials, enter the user name and passcode and click Continue.
6. Enter the credentials of a user who is entitled to use at least one desktop or application pool, select the domain, and click Login.

   If you type the user name using the format user@domain, the name is treated as a user principal name (UPN) because of the @ sign, and the domain drop-down menu is disabled.

   For information about creating desktop pools and entitling users to pools, see Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View document.

7. (Optional) To configure display settings for remote desktops, either right-click a desktop icon or select a desktop icon and click the Settings (gear-shaped) icon next to the server name in the upper portion of the screen.

   Option	Description
   Display protocol	If your administrator has allowed it, you can use the Connect Via list to choose between VMware Blast, PCoIP, and Microsoft RDP display protocols. VMware Blast (Blast Extreme) requires Horizon Client 4.0 or later and Horizon Agent 7.0 or later.
   Display layout	Use the Display list to select a window size or to use multiple monitors.

8. (Optional) To mark the remote desktop or application as a favorite, right-click the desktop or application icon and select Mark as Favorite from the context menu that appears.

   A star icon appears in the upper-right corner of the desktop or application name. The next time you log in, you can click the Show Favorites button to quickly find this application or desktop.

9. To connect to a remote desktop or application, either double-click its icon or right-click the icon and select Launch from the context menu.

   If you are connecting to a session-based remote desktop, which is hosted on a Microsoft RDS host, and if the desktop is already set to use a different display protocol, you will not be able to connect immediately. You will be prompted to either use the protocol that is currently set or have the system log you off of the remote operating system so that a connection can be made with the protocol you selected.

Results

After you are connected, the remote desktop or application window appears. If you are entitled to more than one desktop or application, the desktop and application selector window also remains open, so that you can connect to multiple items at the same time.

If you have Horizon Client 3.4 or later, the Sharing dialog box might appear. From the Sharing dialog box, you can allow or deny access to files on your local system. For more information, see Share Access to Local Folders and Drives.

If authentication to View Connection Server fails or if the client cannot connect to the remote desktop or application, perform the following tasks:

• Determine whether View Connection Server is configured not to use SSL. The client software requires SSL connections. Check whether the global setting in View Administrator for the Use SSL for client connections check box is deselected. If so, you must either select the check box, so that SSL is used, or set up your environment so that clients can connect to an HTTPS enabled load balancer or other intermediate device that is configured to make an HTTP connection to View Connection Server.

• Verify that the security certificate for View Connection Server is working properly. If it is not, in View Administrator, you might also see that the agent on desktops is unreachable. These are symptoms of additional connection problems caused by certificate problems.

• Verify that the tags set on the View Connection Server instance allow connections from this user. See the View Administration document.

• Verify that the user is entitled to access this desktop or application. See the Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View document.

• If you are using the RDP display protocol to connect to a remote desktop, verify that the remote operating system allows remote desktop connections.

What to do next

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