Patent ID: 8392838

Claim:
A method in a virtual desktop management server computing system, comprising: receiving a request from an application executing on a client device, through an application programming interface (“API”) call, for user content stored on a virtual disk, the virtual disk associated with a non-running virtual desktop; verifying that the received request is an authorized request; causing, on behalf of the received request, a non-executing control virtual machine to be executed and a new connection session to be established between the virtual desktop management server computing system and the executing control virtual machine without causing a connection session to be established between the client device and the executing control virtual machine, the executing control virtual machine having an ability to access a physical datastore containing the virtual disk; causing the connected control virtual machine to mount the virtual disk and to obtain the requested user content from the mounted virtual disk on behalf of the client device, without causing the virtual disk to be connected to the client device by remoting a virtual desktop to the client device; receiving the obtained user content from the control virtual machine; and returning the obtained user content in response to the request.