How to redirect HID device to an azure virtual desktop?

Question

I am struggling to get this HID USB pass through to work. I have a USB foot pedal for audio and video playback integrations. The device shows up as this on my local machine:

HIDClass USB Input Device USB\VID_05F3&PID_00FF\5&1ED586E8&0&2

I am using Microsoft Remote Desktop Version 1.2.5716.0

I have verified that a usb thumb drive can be seen on the virtual machine. (I realize that is a different device).

I have configured the remote desktop to accept USB and plug and play. What I've found is that when I create a VPN and connect over 'Remote Desktop Connection' client (built in to windows) I can configure this group policy to forward the device to the remote session.

Group policy:

However, This policy does not get applied over the Azure remote desktop client. This is the client I need to allow users to subscribe to the virtual desktop over Azure Entra ID. Can someone please advise here?

When using the Remote Desktop Connection client I can see the settings to modify upon creation:

However, I cannot modify these settings in azure's client (that I know of). I'm looking for a workaround or something else. Please help.

Answer 1

Hi Scott Justus,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A platform.

Based on your question description we understand that you want to redirect HID device to an azure virtual desktop.

You can configure the redirection of smart card devices from a local device to a remote session over the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Please enable smart card redirection on your session hosts using Microsoft Intune or Group Policy, then control redirection using the host pool RDP properties.

To allow or disable smart card device redirection using Group Policy:

1. Open the Group Policy Management console on a device you use to manage the Active Directory domain.
2. Create or edit a policy that targets the computers providing a remote session you want to configure.
3. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Device and Resource Redirection.

Please find the below document for your reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/redirection-configure-smart-cards?tabs=group-policy&pivots=azure-virtual-desktop#configure-smart-card-device-redirection-using-microsoft-intune-or-group-policy

I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

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