Browser Integration

You can launch IAP Desktop from within a web browser by using iap-rdp:/// links.

Prerequisites

To enable the feature, do the following:

• Open IAP Desktop.
• Ensure that Options > Associate with 'iap-rdp:///' links is checked.

By default, the feature is turned off.

URL format

IAP Desktop supports the following URL format for iap-rdp:/// links:

iap-rdp:///project-id/zone-id/instance-name

Where:

• project-id is the ID of the project, for example my-project-123.
• zone-id is the ID of the zone a VM is running in, for example us-central1-a.
• instance-name is the name of the VM instance, for example my-instance-1.

Note: Instead of a triple-slash, you can also use a single slash: iap-rdp:/project-id/zone-id/instance-name.

Parameters

Optionally, you can add additional parameters to the URL to customize the connection behavior:

iap-rdp:///my-project-123/us-central1-a/my-instance-1?Username=bob&DesktopSize=1

The following parameters are supported:

Parameter	Value
Username	Windows username (SAM format)
Domain	Domain (NetBIOS format)
ConnectionBar	Controls whether the connection bar is shown in full-screen mode: 0 - automatically hide (default) 1 - pinned 2 - off
DesktopSize	Controls the remote desktop resolution/size: 0 - same as client size 1 - same as screen size 2 - automatically adjust (default)
ColorDepth	Controls the color depth of the remote desktop: 0 - high color 1 - true color (default) 2 - deep color
AudioMode	Controls how audio is played: 0 - play locally (default) 1 - play on server 2 - do not play
RedirectClipboard	Controls whether clipboard contents can be shared with remote desktop: 0 - disabled 1 - enabled (default)
CredentialGenerationBehavior	Controls whether the user is offered to generate new credentials when connecting: 0 - allow generating new credentials 1 - allow generating new credentials if no existing credentials found (default) 2 - do not allow generating new credentials 3 - force user to generate new credentials
RdpPort	RDP port the server is listening on. Use this parameter if you've configured Windows to use a listening port other than 3389.

Limitations

Connecting to VM instances from within a web browser is currently not supported for SSH.

What's next

• Read more about connecting to Windows VM
• See how you can connect to Linux VMs by using SSH
• Use IAP Desktop to view instance details