VMware View already came with USB redirection in his early stages but now with View 3.1, released last week it becomes more flexible. By default HID (Human interface devices) are filtered out because it wouldn’t be good to have the local keyboard, mouse or other device which is needed local, redirected to the virtual desktop session.

But sometimes there is a need for HID devices to be passed through such as barcode or card readers. If you want to enable redirection for a specific device you should read this.

First of all you’ll need to know the VID/PID (Vendor ID, Product ID) of your HID device. There are some free applications out there which can give you the information but they easiest way is to check the View debug log files or just the Windows Device Manager.

To check the debug logs navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VDM\Logs. Open the Debug log file ad search for the term devices.

This will guide you to the connected USB devices and you’ve to look for the ID’s now. If you like Windows Device Manager, just open it and select your USB device, click right, Properties and then select Details.

With this information you can now open the Windows Registry Editor and go to the key: HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\USB\.

Please create a new Multi-String value named AllowHardwareIDs and set the value data to the VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx you’ve found before. After that you should restart the client and the HID devices are redirected on your next connection to the virtual desktop.

Thanks to Rick Westrate for his article on Virtual Insanity.

Similar Posts:

• USB Redirection with RDP
• USB Device Redirection in VMware Horizon View 5.1 and 5.2
• VMware View 3.1 Available Now
• Using client drives
• VMware View Open Client 4.0.0 Beta 1