Tip: Fixing Keyboard Layout Issues with VMWare Horizon View Client 2.0 for Linux and Mac OS X

Hello Folks,

it looks that the current VMWare Horizon View Client for Linux and Mac OS X have an issue with Keyboard mappings, for example you are using Scandinavien or Swiss Layouts on the PC / Thin Client and in the VM the Keyboard Layout changes to English(US). It also looks that it doesn’t matter what Keyboard Layout’s are available in the VM, so as sample also a pure German VM without any US Settings/Layout available(!) switch to English(US).

This behavior is also only related to the current Horizon View Client (IGEL Firmware = 4.12.100), older Clients from VMWare are working fine in my known cases (IGEL Firmware < 4.12.100) incl. the current Client for Mac OS X which shows the same "wrong" behavior like the current Linux Client (old OS X Clients are working fine too). A Workaround to fix this issue is the following registry tweak for the VM's which can be applied thru a Group Policy or set in the local RegEdit if needed. Open the Registry and browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout Create a new Registry Setting: Value name: IgnoreRemoteKeyboardLayout Data type: REG_DWORD Value data: 1 Apply the setting/policy to the affected VM's only, the issue should be fixed now and the language settings in the VM will be used for the session. As said and in general, the issue can happen but it don't have to be... Only use it if required, i will not provide any warranty at all and you do this on your own risk. Cheers Michael P.S.: This will also fix issues with other Windows based Remote Sessions like RDP, ICA or whatever if you run in a similar issue. Please note: After done this setting the local client keyboard layout will always be ignored.