A system is described for playing embedded video on the Web inside the virtual desktop. A video element, such as an HTML5 video element, in a webpage accessed through a browser in the virtual desktop can be detected and video content for the video element can be intercepted before it is decoded in the virtual desktop. The encoded video data can be transmitted to the client device. On the client device, a counterpart video rendering application can receive the transmitted video data, decode it, and render it in a window that is overlaid onto a corresponding area of the virtual desktop graphical user interface (GUI) in a client application. Headless video composition can be implemented for rendering the video on the client, giving the illusion of the video playing inside the virtual desktop, while it is actually playing on the client itself.