Omnissa Horizon Client for Chrome Guide

This guide describes how to install, configure, and use Omnissa Horizon® Client™ for Chrome. This guide is written for administrators and end users of Horizon Client for Chrome.

You can also access this guide through the Help action in the Horizon Client user interface.

Horizon Client communicates with a server, which acts as a broker between the client device and remote desktops and published applications. You enter credentials into Horizon Client, the server authenticates your credentials, and then the server finds the remote desktops and published applications that you are entitled to use.

How to Use This Guide

To get the help that you need from this guide, refer to the chapters that apply to your role and use case.

For end users and administrators - If you are an end user who needs to use Horizon Client to connect to remote desktops and applications and work in remote sessions, see the following chapters. These chapters also contain information relevant to administrators.

For administrators - If you are an administrator who needs to set up a Horizon deployment that includes Chrome clients, see the following chapters. These chapters are written for experienced system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and data center operations.

How Do I Log In?

Before you can log in and connect to a remote desktop or published application, a system administrator at your company must set up your user account. If Horizon Web Client prompts you for a server name and domain, your system administrator must tell you the server name to type and the domain to select.

Note: If you do not know your user name or password, or how to reset your password, contact the system administrator at your company.

When you are ready to log in and get started, see Connecting to Remote Desktops and Published Applications.

System Requirements for Horizon Client for Chrome

The device on which you use Horizon Client for Chrome must meet certain software requirements.

Device models

Chromebook, Chromebox, or a device running ChromeOS Flex

Operating systems

One of the following:

ChromeOS 75 or later, running on a Chromebook
ChromeOS 108 or later, running on a Chromebox
ChromeOS Flex 103 or later

Additional Requirement for Scanner Redirection: Chrome browser version 115 or later for API compatibility with the new scanner redirection feature. The Chrome browser should be run with administrator privileges to enable full functionality.

CPU architecture

ARM64, ARM, or x86

Horizon deployments

Horizon Client for Chrome requires the latest maintenance release of one of the following deployment types:

Omnissa Horizon 8 version 2006 or later
Omnissa Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen
Horizon Cloud in Microsoft Azure

Note: If client systems connect from outside the corporate firewall in a Horizon 8 or Horizon 7 deployment, use an Omnissa Unified Access Gateway appliance so that client systems do not require a VPN connection. If your company has an internal wireless network to provide routable access to remote desktops, you do not need to set up Unified Access Gateway or a VPN connection.

Horizon Agent

Latest maintenance release of one of the following:

Horizon Agent 2006 or later
Horizon Agent 7.13 or later

Scanner Redirection Supported Standards: Scanner redirection on Horizon Chrome Client utilitzes Google's proposed SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) API for compatibility in Chrome OS environments. SANE is converted to TWAIN through webassembly to ensure compatibility with Horizon infrastructure.

Operating System and Browser Requirements: ChromeOS 108 or later, or Chrome browser version 115 or later, to support the new API for scanner redirection
Limitations: Currently unavailable for Android or iOS Horizon Clients Not support on Horizon Web Access or RDP sessions
Display protocol: Omnissa Horizon Blast

Smart card authentication

For more information, see Smart Card Authentication Requirements section.

Third-party firewalls

Firewalls must allow inbound traffic on certain TCP ports. For more information, see Firewall Rules for Client Web Browser Access section.

Display protocol

Omnissa Horizon Blast

System Requirements for Geolocation Redirection

Horizon Agent and Horizon Client, and the virtual desktop or RDS host and client machine on which you install the agent and client software, must meet certain requirements to support the Geolocation Redirection feature. See, System Requirements for Geolocation Redirection section.

Smart Card Authentication Requirements

Chrome systems that use a smart card for user authentication must meet certain requirements. Smart cards have certain limitations when used with Horizon Client, as described in Smart Card Authentication Limitations section.

Client Hardware and Software Requirements

Users that authenticate with smart cards must have a physical smart card, and each smart card must contain a user certificate. The following smart cards are supported.

U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC)
U.S. Federal Government Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card (also called FIPS-201 smart card)

Each system that uses a smart card for user authentication must have the following hardware and software.

Horizon Client for Chrome
A compatible smart card reader
Google Smart Card Connector extension

The connector extension provides basic support for smart cards on Chrome OS. You can download the Smart Card Connector extension from the Chrome web store. Omnissa recommends using Google Smart Card Connector extension version 1.2.16.1 or later.
Charismathics CSSI Smart Card Middleware

This middleware supports communication with the smart card and other client certificates, and is available as a download from the Chrome web store.

You might need to install root and intermediate certificates on the Chrome device. For more information, see the Google Chrome OS documentation.

Agent Software Requirements

An administrator must install one of the following middleware on the agent machine, depending on the authentication requirements of your organization:

Charismathics CSSI Smart Card Middleware
HID Global ActivID ActivClient middleware

For the supported agent operating systems, see Feature Support for Chrome Clients section.

Additional Smart Card Authentication Requirements

In addition to meeting the smart card requirements for Horizon Client for Chrome, other Horizon 8 components must meet certain configuration requirements to support smart cards.

Omnissa Horizon Connection Server

For information about configuring Horizon Connection Server to support smart card use, see the Horizon 8 Administration document.

Unified Access Gateway appliances

Unified Access Gateway 3.2 and later.

For information about configuring a Unified Access Gateway appliance to support smart card use, see the Deploying and Configuring Omnissa Unified Access Gateway document.

Active Directory

For information about tasks that an administrator might need to perform in Active Directory to implement smart card authentication, see the Horizon 8 Administration document.

System Requirements for Geolocation Redirection

The source of the geolocation information is the operating system of the local device using Horizon Client. This information can be redirected by the client to remote desktops or published applications. The configuration settings of the host system and the agent can restrict the feature's availability.

With Geolocation Redirection, geolocation information is sent from the client system to the remote desktop or published application.

Virtual desktop or RDS host

The Windows Location service setting must be On in Settings > Privacy > Location.

The Geolocation Redirection feature supports the following remote desktop applications.

Application	Platform
Google Chrome (latest version)	All virtual desktops or RDS hosts
Internet Explorer 11	All virtual desktops or RDS hosts
Microsoft Edge (Chromium)	All virtual desktops or RDS hosts
Microsoft Edge, Maps, Weather, and other Win32 and UWP apps	Windows 10

The Location permission setting, if any, must be enabled individually in each supported browser.
Horizon Agent must be installed with the Geolocation Redirection custom setup option selected. This option is not selected by default. See the topics about installing Horizon Agent in the Desktops and Applications in Horizon 8 document.

Client System

To share the client system's location information, you must configure the Geolocation settings in Horizon Client.
For Horizon Client for Chrome, the permissions for location services must be On in Settings > Manage your apps > Apps > Horizon > Permissions > Location.

Display protocol for the remote session

Omnissa Horizon Blast

Requirements for Using URL Content Redirection

With the URL Content Redirection feature, URL content can be redirected from the client machine to a remote desktop or published application (client-to-agent redirection), or from a remote desktop or published application to the client machine (agent-to-client redirection).

For example, an end user can click a link in the native Chrome browser on the client and the link opens in the remote Internet Explorer browser, or an end user can click a link in the remote Internet Explorer browser and the link opens in the native Chrome browser on the client machine. Any number of protocols can be configured for redirection, including HTTP, mailto, and callto.

An administrator must configure settings that specify how Horizon Agent redirects URL content from the client to a remote desktop or published application, or how Horizon Agentredirects URL content from a remote desktop or published application to the client.

For complete information, see Configuring URL Content Redirection topic in the Horizon Remote Desktop Features and GPOs document.

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