How to disable local drive mapping on VDM server?

[scnguye2]

To all,

I am currently using a laptop running Vista Ultimate, with VDM-Client installed. I connect to the VDM Connection Broker Server, in order to access my virtual desktop. I notice that each time I connect to the virtual desktop, all of my local drives on the laptop, including the CD-ROM, are mapped.

I understand that you can disable this through group policy or using the custom policy file, "vdm_client.adm" (found in C:\Program Files\VMWare\VMWare VDM\Server\ADM). I set both VALUEON and VALUEOFF to false under;

CATEGORY !!VMwareVDMRdpSettings

KEYNAME "Software\Policies\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Client\RDP Settings"

POLICY !!RedirectDrives

VALUENAME "RedirectDrives"

VALUEON false

VALUEOFF false

END POLICY

I am not sure if I am doing this correctly, but even after I reboot the VDM server, I still see the mapped drives when accessing the virtual desktop. I hope to be able to modify just the custom policy rather than the group policy.

Please advise, thank you.

Sang

[mittim12]

Are you applying this policy to the machine being used to connect to the Virtual Desktop?

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[scnguye2]

I modified the custom policy on the actual VDM server, not the local machine (my laptop) that I use to connect to the virtual desktop.

[mittim12]

You need to point the policy to the machine you are connecting from (your laptop)

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[scnguye2]

I am sorry but I am confused. The custom policy file is only available on the VDM Server.

Please provide instruction on how I can point the policy to my local machine (my laptop).

Thanks.

[mittim12 · Accepted solution]

You can create a GPO and make the changes. Assign that GPO to a OU that contains the clients you are connecting from or you can just adust the registry key on the machine you are connecting from (your laptop).

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[scnguye2]

I went and edit the following key on my machine (laptop) registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

"fAutoClientDrives"=dword:00000000

The value was set to 0 to disable autoclientdrives. It still did not work.

Could it that the VDM custom policy is overriding the existing local machine policy?

[scnguye2]

Problem SOLVED!!!

I disabled the drive mapping, by accessing gpedit.msc on the virtual desktop, and enabled the Do not allow drive redirection.

Here is the complete procedure:

- Login to virtual desktop

- Start -> Run -> type gpedit.msc

- In Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Terminal Services, Client/Server data redirection

- Enable Do not allow drive redirection

- Start -> Run -> type cmd

- Type gpupdate, to refresh the changes

- Logout and log back in

You can also create an OU in Active Directory, move all virtual desktop into the OU, create a domain group policy, and link it to the OU to apply this change across all virtual desktops.

Hope this will help anyone who's interested in disabling auto drive mapping.

Sang

[mittim12]

Glad you found an alternate solution to stopping the drive mappings. Here is a link to the VDM 2.1 reviewers guide that has information on setting up GPO for clients on page 106 or so. You can play around with this if you ever want to figure out why the vdm_client.adm file didn't work for you.

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