Horizon View 5.3 Feature Pack 1 - Installation Troubleshooting
Posted on 11 Dec 2013 by Ray Heffer
If you’re not already running Horizon View 5.3… why not? Since Horizon View 5.3 was released VMware have already extended it’s functionality again with Feature Pack 1. If you’re not familiar with Feature Packs, they’re essentially shiny new updates and features to the core product release. These can be updates to View clients (E.g. iOS, Android, Windows) or the View server functionality itself. Anyway, the topic of this post is troubleshooting as I’ve seen some instances where the Feature Pack installation fails.
Horizon View 5.3 Feature Pack 1 provides the following features and updates:
- Multimedia redirection (MMR) for Windows 7 (previously limited to Windows XP)
- Flash URL redirection
- Real-time Audio-Video (RTAV)
- HTML Access
- Unity Touch
In addition Unity Touch, HTML Access and RTAV are extended to support Windows Server 2008 and Windows 8.1, although HTML access is Tech Preview for Windows 8 or 8.1.
Troubleshooting
I’ve noticed that a few people have had issues installing the Feature Pack which may be due to the customization of the Windows 7 virtual desktop master image. Firstly, if you followed the VMware View Optimization Guide for Windows 7 then you may have disabled some Windows services that are required by the Feature Pack. Once such service is “Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (UxSms)” which is a required component for Windows 7 MMR. If this is disabled then you will get the following error:
“Error 1920.Service Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (UxSms) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.”
If you don’t want to use all of the Feature Pack components listed above then you can choose not to install one or more, so if you don’t use Windows 7 MMR then simply deselect it during the Feature Pack 1 installation. Otherwise, enable the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager services (set to Automatic) and the Feature Pack will install. This service allows for Aero, 3D effects and high resolution support.
Note: This service is always on with Windows 8 and cannot be disabled.
If you have problems installing other components then check that required services are not disabled, or there are no restrictions in place preventing the VMware virtual Webcam or Audio drivers from being installed.