VMware recently updated the full set of VMware View Clients: Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS and Android, all available here. New in the latest release of all VMware View clients (5.2 for Windows and 1.6 for all other clients) is support for launching the VMware View client from a URI link.
At the time of install, the View client associated itself with the URI scheme name “vmware-view://.” When a user clicks a vmware-view link, the user’s system will launch the VMware View Client. Administrators can specify many VMware View Client settings in the URI link.
What does this mean for you? When you have a new user, you can give him a system with the VMware View Client installed and then send him an email or web portal link that will launch his client with some settings prefilled. The next time the user launches View, the client will remember those settings.
For example, you could send new employees an email pointing to their VMware View server:
Or add a link to your intranet:
Items you can control with the VMware View URI schema include:
- View Connection Server address
- Port number for View Connection Server
- Active Directory user name
- Radius or RSA SecurID user name
- Domain name
- Desktop display name
- Window size
- Desktop actions including reset, log off and roll back
- Display protocol
- Options for redirecting USB devices
Examples
The following URI launches the VMware View Client and fills in the server name “view.mycompany.com.”
- vmware-view://view.mycompany.com/
The next URI also launches the VMware View client and fills in the server name “view.mycompany.com.” The username field will be prefilled with “Fred.” After the user types in his password, the View client connects to the desktop with the name “Finance Desktop” over PCoIP.
- vmware-view://[email protected]/Finance%20Desktop?desktopProtocol=PcoIP
Finally, the following URI launches the client and points to the server “view.mycompany.com.” The user must fill in his name and password. The client then connects to the desktop with the name “Primary Desktop” and automatically connects all USB devices. A note, if the client does not support USB device redirection, as is the case for the Mac or mobile clients, the VMware View Client will simply ignore that part of the URI link.
- vmware-view://view.mycompany.com/Primary%20Desktop?action=start-session&connectUSBOnStartup=true
For more details on how to use the URI schema feature, refer to “Using VMware View Client” documentation available here.
We hope that the new URI schema makes it easier for you to setup and deploy VMware View in your environment.
