The URL Content Redirection template file (urlRedirection.admx) contains group policy settings that enable you to create rules for agent-to-client and client-to-agent redirection. The template file contains both Computer Configuration and User Configuration policies. All the settings are in the VMware Horizon URL Redirection folder in the Group Policy Management Editor.

The following table describes the group policy settings in the URL Content Redirection template file.

Table 1. URL Content Redirection Group Policy Settings
Setting Computer User Properties
IE Policy: Automatically enable URL Redirection plugin X Determines whether newly installed Internet Explorer plug-ins are automatically activated.

This setting is not configured by default.

IE Policy: Prevent users from changing URL Redirection plugin loading behavior X Determines whether users can disable the URL Content Redirection feature.

This setting is not configured by default.

Url Redirection Enabled X Determines whether the URL Content Redirection feature is enabled. You can use this setting to disable the URL Content Redirection feature even if the feature has been installed in the client or agent.

This setting is not configured by default.

Url Redirection IP Rules Enabled X

When this setting is enabled, you can enter a specific IP address or IP address range in Client Rules or Agent Rules. For more information, see IP Address and IP Address Range Filtering.

This setting is disabled by default.

Note: This feature is supported only with Internet Explorer and IPv4.
Url Redirection Protocol '...' X Use this setting for any protocol other than HTTP and HTTPS, such as email or callto.

The options are the same as for Url Redirection Protocol 'http' and Url Redirection Protocol 'https'.

If you do not need to configure other protocols, you can delete or comment out this entry before adding the URL Content Redirection template file to Active Directory.

This setting is not configured by default.

Url Redirection whitelist configuration X Specifies the applications that the URL Content Redirection feature supports on Windows for the protocol in the URL. The following applications are supported by default:
  • Internet Explorer (iexplore.exe)
  • Chrome (chrome.exe)
  • Firefox (firefox.exe)
  • Microsoft Outlook (outlook.exe)
  • Skype for Business (lync.exe)
  • Skype (skype.exe)
  • Windows Media Player (vmplayer.exe)
You can modify the list of supported applications on Windows by configuring this group policy setting. For example, if you enter the following executable files in the Whitelist text box, URL Content Redirection supports only Chrome, Microsoft Outlook, and Skype:
  • chrome.exe
  • outlook.exe
  • skype.exe

This setting is not configured by default.
Url Redirection Protocol 'http' X For all URLs that use the HTTP protocol, specifies the URLs that should be redirected. This setting has the following options:
  • Broker Hostname - IP address or fully qualified name of the Connection Server host to use when redirecting URLs to a remote desktop or application.
  • Remote Item - display name of the remote desktop or application pool that can handle the URLs specified in Agent Rules.
  • Client Rules - the URLs that should be redirected to the client. For example, if you set Client Rules to .*mycompany.com, all URLs that include the string mycompany.com are redirected to the Windows-based client and are opened in the default browser on the client.
    Note: The range of redirected URLs can differ based on the rule syntax that you use.
    • The rule syntax .*mycompany.com supports the redirection of all URLs that contain the string mycompany.com, including http://mycompany.com.
    • The rule syntax .*.mycompany.com supports the redirection of all URLs that contain the string .mycompany.com. However, it does not support redirection of the root URL. For example, http://mycompany.com is not redirected.
  • Agent Rules - the URLs that should be redirected to the remote desktop or application specified in Remote Item. For example, if you set Agent Rules to .*mycompany.com, all URLs that include the string mycompany.com are redirected to the remote desktop or application.
    Note: The range of redirected URLs can differ based on the rule syntax that you use.
    • The rule syntax .*mycompany.com supports the redirection of all URLs that contain the string mycompany.com, including http://mycompany.com.
    • The rule syntax .*.mycompany.com supports the redirection of all URLs that contain the string .mycompany.com. However, it does not support redirection of the root URL. For example, http://mycompany.com is not redirected.

You can enter regular expressions in Client Rules and Agent Rules. If the Url Redirection IP Rules Enabled setting is enabled, you can also enter a specific IP address or IP address range. For complete syntax information, see Syntax for URL Content Redirection Rules.

When you create agent rules, you must also use the Broker Hostname option to specify the IP address or fully qualified domain name of the Connection Server host, and the Remote Item option to specify the display name of the desktop or application pool.

As a best practice, configure the same redirection settings for the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. That way, if a user types a partial URL into Internet Explorer, such as mycompany.com, and that site redirects from HTTP to HTTPS automatically, the URL Content Redirection feature works as expected. In this example, if you set a rule for HTTPS, but do not set the same redirection setting for HTTP, the partial URL that the user types is not redirected.

This setting is enabled by default.

Url Redirection Protocol 'https' X For all URLs that use the HTTPS protocol, specifies the URLs that should be redirected.

The options are the same as for Url Redirection Protocol 'http'.

This setting is not configured by default.

Install the Chrome extension that is required in the URL content redirection feature. X If this setting is enabled, the Chrome extension that the URL Content Redirection feature requires is installed silently and automatically. This installation also includes granting the necessary permissions. Reversing this installation requires administrative privileges.

If this setting is disabled or is not configured, the Chrome extension that the URL Content Redirection feature requires is not installed, and URL content redirection does not work in the Chrome browser, even if redirection is set, unless the extension is installed from the Chrome Web Store manually.

This setting is not configured by default.

For client-to-agent redirection, if you configure a protocol that does not have a default handler, after you configure a group policy setting for this protocol, you must start Horizon Client once before URLs that specify this protocol are redirected.

The preferred method for configuring client-to-agent redirection is to use the vdmutil command-line utility instead of group policy settings.