VMware

VMware HorizonView Client for Android Release Notes

Horizon View Client for Android 2.0 | 14 March 2013

Last Updated: 14 March 2013

These release notes cover the following topics:

Key Features

VMware Horizon View Client for Android makes it easy to access your Windows virtual desktop from your Android tablet or phone with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network (LAN) or across a Wide Area Network (WAN).

  • Work the way you want to - Use your Android tablet or phone to work on your Windows-based Horizon View virtual desktop from any location. Support for the PCoIP display protocol from VMware means your desktop is fast and responsive regardless of where you are.
  • Best of both worlds - For the mobile device world, Horizon View Client supports native Android gestures for quick and easy navigation around your desktop. For the Windows world, the full screen touchpad feature lets you touch anywhere on the screen to move the mouse pointer around the Windows virtual desktop. Bridging both worlds, the Unity Touch sidebar makes it easy to browse, search, open, and close Windows applications and files, and switch between running applications, all without using the Windows Start menu or Taskbar.
  • Simple connectivity - Horizon View Client for Android is tightly integrated with VMware Horizon View for simple setup and connectivity. Quickly reconnect to your desktop by selecting from the recent desktop list.
  • Unmatched performance - The adaptive capabilities of the PCoIP display protocol mean your virtual desktop is fast and responsive regardless of whether you are connecting over your corporate WiFi network or from your 3G, 4G, or LTE connected Android tablet or phone.
  • Unmatched performance - The adaptive capabilities of the PCoIP protocol are optimized to deliver the best user experience, even over low-bandwidth and high-latency connections.
  • Secure from any location - At your desk or away from the office, your data is always secure.
    And with RSA soft token integration, you need enter only your RSA PIN into Horizon View Client when RSA authentication is required. No need for an RSA hardware token or RSA software token utility.
    Horizon View Client also supports RADIUS authentication with VMware View 5.1 and View Client for Android 1.5 or later.

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What's New in This Release

VMware Horizon View Client for Android 2.0 includes the following new features:

  • Unity Touch - Slide this navigation sidebar open to easily browse, search, open, and close Windows applications and files, create a list of favorite applications and files, and switch between running applications. Requires a VMware Horizon View 5.2 virtual desktop with the Remote Experience Agent installed. This agent is included with VMware Horizon View 5.2 Feature Pack 1.
  • Android 4.x Dictation with Windows Applications - Search for Windows apps and files using voice in the Unity Touch sidebar. Dictate directly into Windows apps using keyboard integration.
  • Full screen mode - With this feature, you get a larger work area for your Windows apps. A new radial menu makes it easy to access Horizon View Client menus and commands.
  • Optimizations for VMware Horizon View 5.2 - Improved client side caching in Horizon View 5.2 is ideal for mobile devices. The new cache uses 90MB and gets the equivalent of the 250MB cache from earlier releases.
  • Localization support for Traditional Chinese - Both the Horizon View Client user interface and documentation are now available in Traditional Chinese.

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Internationalization

For Horizon View Client for Android, both the user interface and the documentation are available in English, Japanese, French, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.

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Before You Begin

  • VMware Horizon View Client for Android requires the Android 3 (Honeycomb) or later operating system.
  • NOTE: The latest version of the VMware View Client for Cisco Cius tablet is View Client 1.5 and is available in CiscoHQ.
  • VMware Horizon View Client for Android is supported with VMware View 4.6.1 or later.
  • When you install Horizon View Client for Android, you will be prompted to let the app read phone status and identity. This prompt relates to the new RSA soft token integration feature. The prompt is requesting permission to read the state of the phone. This permission does not allow the app to make a phone call or send a message. You can safely grant this permission.
  • Install and upgrade View Client for Android just as you do any other Android app. For example, you can get the latest version of the app from Google Play or the Amazon Appstore for Android. For a link to the Horizon View Client app in one of these stores, go to the Horizon View Client Downloads page.
  • For system requirements and installation instructions, see Using VMware Horizon View Client for Android.

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Resolved Issues

The following issue was fixed in this release of Horizon View Client for Android:

  • Previously, Horizon View Client for Android could be installed only on the internal storage of the Android device. This issue has been resolved. You can now install the client software on an external storage device, such as an SD card.

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Known Issues

  • The Unity Touch sidebar cannot show changes in the All Programs menu for new software that you install during that same session.
    Workaround: In order to see items for new software that you just installed, disconnect from the desktop and then connect again.
  • If you use the Unity Touch sidebar to start a Windows 8 Desktop-mode application, such as Microsoft Word, while the Windows 8 Start screen (Metro mode) is displayed, the application is launched in the background. In this example, you cannot see the Microsoft Word application until you switch to the traditional Desktop mode.
  • If your phone or tablet uses a resolution lower than 1024x768 and you want to use a Windows 8 View desktop, you must use Desktop mode for the Windows 8 View desktop. Using the tiles on the Start screen requires a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher.
  • Occasionally, connecting to a View desktop might fail due to a timeout issue.
    Workaround: Quit the Horizon View Client app and then launch it again.
  • VMware View 1.6 and later mobile clients working with VMware View 5.1 servers allow you touch directly into text fields of Windows applications and automatically pop-up the keyboard. However, this feature does not work with the following applications: Firefox, Google Chrome, Adobe Reader, and Adobe Flash content in a browser.
  • The Shift key in the top row of the onscreen keyboard or in the navigation keys is for entering key combinations, such as Ctrl+Shift. If you need to capitalize a letter or type an exclamation point (!) or question mark (?) or other symbol that you create by using the Shift key, use the up arrow as you would in the standard onscreen keyboard.
  • Only English external keyboards are supported.
    Workaround: To input non-English characters, use the onscreen keyboard.
  • Because VMware Horizon View Client is available in Korean, whereas View Connection Server 4.6.x is not, if you use Horizon View Client on a Korean system, you will find that messages that originate from Horizon View Client are available in Korean, but messages that originate from View Connection Server 4.6.x appear in English.
  • If you have a Windows XP guest operating system in a View 4.6 desktop (agent) and that desktop is set to a time zone that is different from the time zone on your tablet (client), then if you go to the Date and Time Properties dialog box in the View desktop's Control Panel, you see that the time zone shown on the Date and Time tab corresponds to the time zone of the tablet, but the time zone shown on the Time Zone tab corresponds to the time zone of the View desktop. This issue is resolved if you use View Connection Server 5.0 and later.
  • On Android 3 and 4.1.x devices, if you have an active connection to a View desktop and then have View Client run in the background while you pair a Blue Tooth keyboard to the tablet, the connection to the View desktop is lost.

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