The Zoom VDI Plugin Management solution was developed to address the need to update the VDI plugin on local devices. This can be useful for managed devices in the office, where end-users may not have the necessary administrative permissions to start a scheduled update, or, in particular, devices used at home and not easily accessible by IT services.
The same registry/policy key that can be used to enable Zoom VDI Plugin Management on the virtual desktop can also be used to disable Zoom VDI Plugin Management from being applied to a specific machine.
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Admins can choose to enable Zoom VDI Plugin Management for home users, while disabling for in-office devices to prevent these IT-managed devices from being automatically updated. With version 5.17.10 and higher, Plugin Management is installed as a separate application, in addition to the standard services and files to support VDI Plugin updates. For both Windows and macOS, the application can be found with other installed applications, as well as an available uninstaller.
On Windows and macOS devices, this is managed through the EnableVDIPluginAutoUpgrade VDI registry policy, with a 0 value disabling the feature. These configuration files would be found under the following file paths:
Additional policies are available to further manage the plugin update prompt displayed to users, particularly for accounts requiring an option for their users to decline installing or updating a VDI Plugin.
By default, when the EnableVDIPluginAutoUpgrade policy is added to a virtual desktop, the user is prompted that a plugin is either missing or needs to be updated. OK is the only option in the default dialog presented to the user. Admins can provide additional options in that update prompt, including a Later option to delay the installation or wait until the user disconnects before installing, as well the Opt Out option to decline the installation entirely. Depending on the combination of these policies, users may have a combination of Ok, Later, and Opt Out options when a VDI plugin is missing or requires an update.
To provide the later option, admins must enable the UpdatePluginLater VDI registry policy.
To provide the opt-out option, admins must enable the VDIPluginOptOut VDI registry policy.
Users who choose Opt Out are presented with a dialog prompt to confirm their intention to stop receiving VDI Plugin updates, providing them options to continue to Opt Out or Opt In to continue receiving VDI Plugin update notifications. The dialog clarifies that VDI Plugin updates may be required for new features or even to join future meetings. The opt-out choice is saved on the local device, not in the virtual desktop, and as such other devices used to connect to the virtual desktop may also prompt them with the default options.
Users wanting to opt back into receiving notifications for VDI Plugin updates can re-enable these through the dedicated VDI Plugin Management application on their device.
Some managed device situations may require a varied approach where VDI plugin updates are wanted for some devices and not for others. For example, IT may want to prompt employees working from home to install and update the VDI Plugin when they are using their personal computer, while that same employee using a computer in the office directly managed by IT would never encounter the prompt to update.
To both prevent VDI Plugin notifications from being displayed on a specific computer and disable the Opt In/Opt Out options in VDI Plugin Management while allowing VDI Plugin Management updates for other computers, such as a personal computer at home, admins must configure a local policy on the device which needs to have VDI Plugin updates disabled.
To do this, admins would need to apply the same policies set on the virtual desktop to the local computer, which will override any policy set on the virtual desktop. On the local device, these configuration files would be found under the following file paths:
The Zoom VDI Plugin Management software must be installed on the remote device that connects to the virtual desktop before VDI plugins can be downloaded and installed automatically.
With version 5.17.10 and higher, Plugin Management is installed as a separate application, in addition to the standard services and files to support VDI Plugin updates. For both Windows and macOS, the application can be found with other installed applications, with the ability to uninstall through the Control Panel for Windows or uninstaller provided for macOS.
The following options can help users increase the availability of the Zoom VDI Plugin Management software on targeted devices.
The Windows version of Zoom VDI Plugin Management has been included and installed with VDI plugins. Any Windows VDI plugin installed from that version forward automatically includes the Zoom VDI Plugin Management software.
To ensure that VDI plugins can continue to be managed, even if an end user uninstalls the VDI plugin itself, early releases of the Zoom VDI Plugin Management software could only be removed if the CleanZoom uninstaller was used to remove everything. This was changed for Windows in version 5.14.0 so that the VDI Plugin Management is installed as a separate application, ensuring that missing VDI plugins can be installed at any time. The solution requires little harddrive space on the device and is only used to check and manage VDI plugins when the VDI Plugin Management policy is enabled on the virtual desktop.
Zoom is actively working with our virtual desktop solutions partners to explore ways to automatically deliver the Zoom VDI Plugin Management software to users. These options include pushing the software, using the virtual desktop management software to deliver the package to the connection client, or bundling the Zoom VDI Plugin Management software with the connection client directly.
These solutions are currently still in development. Details will be published when there is more information available.