User manual

Tips for Using the Serial Port Redirection Feature
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Click the serial port icon ( ) in the system tray, or notication area, of the remote desktop to connect,
disconnect, and customize the mapped COM ports.
When you click the serial port icon, the Serial COM Redirection for VMware Horizon context menu
appears.
N If the items in the context menu are grayed out, it means that an administrator has locked the
conguration. Also note that the icon appears only if you use the required versions of the agent and
Horizon Client for Windows, and you must connect over VMware Blast or PCoIP. The icon does not
appear if you connect to a remote desktop from a Mac, Linux, or mobile client.
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In the context menu, the port items are listed using the following format, for example: COM1 mapped
to COM3. The rst port, which is COM1 in this example, is the physical port or the USB-to-serial
adapter used on the local client system. The second port, which is COM3 in this example, is the port
used in the virtual desktop.
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Right-click a COM 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, or you can ignore DSR (that is, ignore the data-set-ready signal), which is
required for some modems and other devices.
You can also change the port number used in the remote desktop. For example, if the COM1 port on the
client is mapped to COM3 in the remote desktop, but the application you are using requires COM1, you
can change the port number to COM1. If COM1 already exists in the remote desktop, you might see
COM1 (Overlapped). You can still use this overlapped port. The remote desktop can receive serial data
through the port from the ESXi host and also from the client system.
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Make sure you connect to a mapped COM port before you aempt to launch an application that
requires access to this port. For example, right-click a COM port and select Connect to use the port in
the remote desktop. When you launch the application, the application opens the serial port.
When a redirected COM port is opened and in use on a remote desktop, you cannot access the port on
the local computer. Conversely, when a COM port is in use on the local computer, you cannot access the
port on the remote desktop.
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In the remote desktop, you can use the Windows Device Manager Port  tab to set the default
Baud rate for a particular COM port. Be sure to use the same seings in the Windows Device Manager
on your client system. Note that the seings from this tab are used only if the application does not
specify the port seings.
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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 command to disconnect and make the physical COM
port available for use on the client computer.
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If you congure a serial port to connect automatically, launch an application that opens the serial port,
and then disconnect and resonnect the desktop session, the auto-connect feature does not work. You
also cannot connect using the serial port's system tray icon's menu option. In most cases, the application
can no longer use the serial port. This is expected behavior. You must terminate the application,
disconnect the desktop session and reconnect again to resolve the problem.
Chapter 5 Using External Devices
VMware, Inc. 39