Configuring Remote Desktop Features

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When you click the serial port icon, the Serial COM Redirection for VMware Horizon menu appears.
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By default, the locally connected COM ports are mapped to corresponding COM ports on the remote
desktop. For example: COM1 mapped to COM3. The mapped ports are not connected by default.
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To use a mapped COM port, you must manually select the Connect option in the Serial COM
Redirection for VMware Horizon menu, or the Autoconnect option must be set during a previous
desktop session or by conguring a group policy seing. Autoconnect congures a mapped port to
connect automatically when a remote desktop session is started.
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When you select the Connect option, the redirected port is active. In the Device Manager in the guest
operating system on the remote desktop, the redirected port is shown as Serial Port Redirector for
VMware Horizon (COMn).
When the COM port is connected, you can open the port in a 3rd-party application, which can exchange
data with the COM port device that is connected to the client machine. While a port is open in an
application, you cannot disconnect the port in the Serial COM Redirection for VMware Horizon
menu.
Before you can disconnect the COM port, you must close the port in the application or close the
application. You can then select the Disconnect option to disconnect the port and make the physical
COM port available for use on the client machine.
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In the Serial COM Redirection for VMware Horizon menu, you can right-click a redirected port to
select the Port Properties command.
In the COM Properties dialog box, you can congure a port to connect automatically when a remote
desktop session is started, ignore the Data Set Ready (DSR) signal, and map the local port on the client
to a dierent COM port on the remote desktop by selecting a port in the Custom port name drop-down
list.
A remote desktop port might be shown as overlapped. For example, you might see COM1
(Overlapped). In this case, the virtual machine is congured with a COM port in the virtual hardware
on the ESXi host. You can use a redirected port even when it is mapped to an overlapped port on the
virtual machine. The virtual machine receives serial data through the port from the ESXi host or from
the client system.
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In the Device Manager in the guest operating system, you can use the Properties > Port  tab to
congure seings for a redirected COM port. For example, you can set the default baud rate and data
bits. However, the seings you congure in Device Manager are ignored if the application species the
port seings.
For end-user instructions for operating redirected serial COM ports, see the Using VMware Horizon Client for
Windows document.
Guidelines for Configuring Serial Port Redirection
Through the group policy seings, you can congure serial port redirection and control the extent to which
users can customize redirected COM ports. Your choices depend on the user roles and 3rd-party
applications in your organization.
For details about the group policy seings, see “Serial Port Redirection Group Policy Seings,” on page 42.
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If your users run the same 3rd-party applications and COM port devices, make sure that the redirected
ports are congured in the same way. For example, in a bank or retail store that uses point-of-sale
devices, make sure that all COM port devices are connected to the same ports on the client endpoints,
and all ports are mapped to the same redirected COM ports on the remote desktops.
Configuring Remote Desktop Features in Horizon 7
40 VMware, Inc.