You can create shortcuts for entitled applications in Horizon Console so that the shortcuts appear in the Windows Start menu, on the Windows desktop, or both, on the user's Windows client device. You can specify up to four category folder levels for shortcuts. You can create shortcuts when you create an application pool. You can also create shortcuts when you edit the application pool.

On Mac clients, if Horizon Client for Mac is configured to run published applications from the Applications folder on the local system and allow folder settings from servers, category folders appear in the Applications folder on the Mac client device. For more information, see the VMware Horizon Client for Mac Installation and Setup Guide document.

Prerequisites

See the Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon and the Setting Up Virtual Desktops in Horizon documents:
  • Set up the RDS hosts.
  • Create a farm that contains the RDS hosts.
  • If you plan to add the application pool manually, gather information about the application.
  • Install Horizon Client for Windows on the client device.

Procedure

  1. In Horizon Console, click Inventory > Applications and click Add.
  2. Select the type of application pool you want to create.
    Option Description
    Add application pool manually Enter the information about the application.
    Select installed applications Filter to find applications by name, installed path, or application type, or select from a list of installed applications.
  3. In the Add Application Pool wizard, select an RDS farm, enter a pool ID, and the full pathname of the application.
  4. Create a shortcut for the application pool.
    1. Click the Category Folder Browse button.
    2. Select the Select a category folder from the folder list option.
    3. Select a category folder from the list, or type a folder name in the Select a category folder or create a new folder to place a shortcut to this pool in the client device text box.
      A folder name can be up to 64 characters long. To specify a subfolder, enter a backslash (\) character, for example, dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4. You can enter up to four folder levels. You cannot begin or end a folder name with a backslash, and you cannot combine two or more backslashes. For example, \dir1, dir1\dir2\, dir1\\dir2, and dir1\\\dir2 are invalid. You cannot enter Windows reserved keywords.
      Note: If needed, non-Windows clients can translate the backslash to a forward slash.
    4. Select the shortcut creation method.
      You can select one or both methods.
      Option Description
      Start Menu/Launcher Creates a Windows Start menu shortcut on the Windows client device.
      Desktop Creates a shortcut on the desktop on the Windows client device.
    5. To save your changes, click Submit.
  5. Select Entitle users after this wizard finishes.
  6. In the Add Entitlements wizard, click Add, select one or more search criteria, and click Find to find users or groups based on your search criteria, select the users or groups you want to entitle to the application in the pool and click OK.
    A check mark appears in the App Shortcut column for the application pool on the Application Pools page.