Force Redirect USB Devices (MIC/WebCam) in Xenith

By default Xenith does a mapping for the devices it finds as audio and video inside XenDesktop even though they are USB devices; this article covers how to force Xenith to make those devices pass-though.

Section for xen.ini

;*************************************************************
;* USB Force Redirect *
;*************************************************************
;Andrea Headset
Device=vusb ForceRedirect=0x0556,0x0001,0x03,0x01,0x01
;Logitech C920 Webcam
Device=vusb ForceRedirect=0x046d,0x082d,0x03,0x01,0x01

where do i get those numbers?

After Xenith boots, go to System Information > Event Log and then plug in the device you want to redirect forcefully

First two hex sections should be good enough.

Use Cases

  • The new H264 on board compression web camera from Logitech (C920); needs the to be directly connected to make use of the compression feature.
  • Dragon NaturallySpeaking keeps track of the Microphone by its HW description (audio.ini > deviceinfo), by default the usb mic is mapped to the VM as Citrix HDX Audio which makes Dragon think as a new device and thus triggers Audio device setup (annoying for users)
  • SmartCards; Encryption keys (IronKeys) etc…

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5 Comments

  1. Thanks for this. I’m not using XD or Xenith, but I’l trying this with XenApp 5 and R10L Winterm running ThinOS 7.1_033. Here’s my numbers. They are slightly different than yours. Same camera i assume. (logitech c920 HD Pro):
    32: VUSB: Local Device(0x046d,0x082d,0xef,0x02,0x01)
    33: USB: Found a new device “USB VIDEO” on port 2
    34: AUDIO: Change record device to HD Pro Webcam C920
    35: USB: Found a new device “USB AUDIO” on port 2
    36: VUSB: Redirected Device(0x0781,0x5406,0x08,0x06,0x50)

    1. Thanks for sharing.
      Xenith is from ThisOS family too, they share most of the INI settings. About the numbers the first two are the critical onces and the rest I yet to find out 🙂
      Vendor ID = Logitech INC (0x046d)
      Product ID = C920 (0x082d)

  2. Great find! I was looking all over the place to get this to work except in xenith. Thanks for the info. You are a genius!

  3. I was wondering if there is anything special needed to do this. I was able to grab the Vendor ID and Product ID and put them in my INI but when the Xenith 0 client grabs the config it doesn’t state that usb is being redirected. I am trying to do this with Plantronics wireless USB headsets. I was able to get usb redirection working on a non audio device.

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