You can run the Horizon Agents Installer on a Windows Server as a personal desktop.

Note: Keep the following points in mind as you perform these tasks:
  • Installing a version of the Horizon Agents Installer that is older than the most recent version of the Horizon Agents Installer can cause problems subsequently when you create RDS pools based on the image VM. In this situation, when you create a new RDS pool, the system can allow you to select HTML Access (Blast) as a protocol, but this selection will not be applied to the pool even though it appears to have been applied successfully.
  • The Help Desk Plugin option is installed by default. If you choose not to install this option, performance-related metrics from user sessions in the desktop instances or farm server instances based on this image are not collected. As a result, some data will not be available in the user card for such sessions. For details, see #GUID-0B4DD01D-6A6C-4490-B191-219288A57631.
  • The vRealize Operations Desktop Agent option is installed by default. If you choose not to install this option, activity-related data from user sessions in the desktop instance or farm server instances based on this image is not reported to the system. As a result, data from end-user activity and other types of desktop activity will not be displayed in reports in the Administration Console.

Procedure

  1. Download the latest Horizon Agents Installer from the Myvmware download site. Note that there are separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
  2. Double-click the Horizon Agents Installer file (file name is: VMware-Horizon-Agents-Installer-x.y.z-nnnnnnn-x64.exe for the 64-bit installer).
    Note: If you choose to perform a silent install, be aware that not all silent install options are applicable to all platforms.
  3. Click Configure under Horizon Cloud Endpoint Desktop.
  4. Make desired configuration changes as described below.
    • Install paths for components

      Enter custom path or leave default.

    • Cloning capability

      To enable Instant Clone, select the Instant Clone radio button.

      Note: Selecting Instant Clone deactivates the Horizon 7 Persona Management option below.
    • Features to install

      Select features to install using the available check boxes. You can hover over each selection for more information about that feature.

  5. Click the forward arrow at the bottom of the wizard to continue.
  6. If you wish to save the silent install command for future use, copy it from the text box.
  7. Click Proceed with installation.
    The wizard shows installation progress for the components.
  8. When all components are installed, click Finish.
  9. Restart the virtual machine when prompted.

What to do next

For improved security regarding the use of the Horizon Agent, deactivate weak ciphers in SSL and TLS, which requires you to edit the Group Policy Object (GPO) of the Active Directory server. See the appropriate Horizon Agent documentation for information about deactivating weak ciphers in SSL/TLS, such as in the VMware Horizon 7 documentation set.