Share Access to Local Folders and Drives with Client Drive Redirection

You can use Horizon Client to share folders and drives on the local client system with remote desktops and applications. This feature is called client drive redirection.

Drives can include mapped drives and USB storage devices.

In a Windows remote desktop, shared folders and drives appear in the This PC folder or in the Computer folder, depending on the Windows operating system version. In a published application, such as Notepad, you can browse to and open a file in a shared folder or drive.

You do not need to be connected to a remote desktop or application to configure client drive redirection settings. The settings apply to all remote desktops and applications. That is, you cannot configure the settings so that local client folders are shared with one remote desktop or application, but not with other remote desktops or applications.

You can turn on the ability to open local files with published applications directly from your local file system. If you select a local file and press Control-click, the Open With menu lists the available published applications. You can also open a local file by dragging and dropping it to the published application window or Dock icon. If you set a published application as the default application for files that have a certain file extension, all files on your local file system that have that file extension are registered with the server to which you are logged in. You can also turn on the ability to run published applications from the Applications folder.

Note

You cannot open a file with a published application if the filename contains characters that are invalid in the Windows file system. For example, you cannot open Notepad and open a file named test2<.txt.

Prerequisites

To share folders and drives with a remote desktop or application, a Horizon administrator must have enabled the client drive redirection feature.

Procedure

Open the Preferences dialog box with the Sharing panel displayed.

Option	Description
From the desktop and application selection window	Select VMware Horizon Client > Preferences and click Sharing.
From the Sharing dialog box that appears when you connect to a desktop or application	Click the Preferences > Sharing link in the dialog box.
From within a desktop OS	Select VMware Horizon Client > Preferences from the menu bar and click Sharing.

Configure the client drive redirection settings.

Option	Action
Share a specific folder or drive with remote desktops and applications	Click the plus (+) button, browse to and select the folder or drive to share, and click Add. Note You cannot share a folder on a USB device if the device is already connected to a remote desktop or application with the USB redirection feature.
Stop sharing a specific folder or drive	Select the folder or drive in the Folder list and click the minus (-) button.
Allow remote desktops and applications access to files in your home directory	Select the Allow access to `home-directory` check box.
Share USB storage devices with remote desktops and applications	Select the Allow access to removable storage check box. The client drive redirection feature automatically shares all USB storage devices inserted in your client system and all FireWire and Thunderbolt-connected external drives. You do not need to select a specific device to share. Note USB storage devices already connected to a remote desktop or application with the USB redirection feature are not shared. If this check box is deselected, you can use the USB redirection feature to connect USB storage devices to remote desktops and applications.
Do not show the Sharing dialog box when you connect to a remote desktop or application	Select the Do not show dialog when connecting to a desktop or application check box. If this check box is deselected, the Sharing dialog box appears the first time you connect to a desktop or application after you connect to a server. For example, if you log in to a server and connect to a desktop, you see the Sharing dialog box. If you then connect to another desktop or application, you do not see the dialog box again. To see the dialog box again, you must disconnect from the server and then log in again.

Configure settings for published applications.

a	Click the Settings button (gear icon) in the upper right corner of the desktop and application selection window and select Applications in the left pane.
b	Select Open local files in hosted applications to turn on the ability to open local files with published applications from the local file system.
c	Select Run hosted applications from your local Applications folder to turn on the ability to run published applications from the Applications folder on the client system.

What to do next

Verify that you can see the shared folders from within the remote desktop or application:

■	From within a Windows remote desktop, open File Explorer and look in the This PC folder, or open Windows Explorer and look in the Computer folder, depending on the Windows operating system version.
■	From within a published application, if applicable, select File > Open or File > Save As and navigate to the folder or drive.

The folders and drives that you selected for sharing might use one or more of the following naming conventions:

■	`name` on `MACHINE-NAME`. For example, jsmith on JSMITH-W03.
■	`N` on `MACHINE-NAME`. For example, Z on JSMITH-W03.
■	`name` (`N`:). For example, jsmith (Z:).

A redirected folder can have two entrances, such as Z on JSMITH-W03 and jsmith (Z:), and both entrances can appear at the same time. If all the volume labels (from A: through Z:) are already in use, the redirected folder has only one entrance, such as Z on JSMITH-W03.