Glasgow Anywhere Desktop
This is a service that allows you to access a Windows system located on campus from a web browser (or RDP client software). The official page describes what it can do and how to connect. This page gives some additional notes (in particular how to configure the RDP client, which is not very obvious from the University documentation).
To connect via a browser use the following link (if this doesn't work check the official page):
https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/arm/webclient/index.html
Use your University email address and GUID password to log in. Then choose a particular Windows 'image' to use (for us this would usually be the COSE Desktop). A notice should pop up asking what local resources the remote computer can access - you probably want Clipboard at least for easy copying and pasting of things between the local and remote systems.
You will then have to enter your credentials again. Again use your email and GUID password (although the other form of the username CAMPUS\ab12x also works).
Notes about the Anywhere Desktop §
- Your Onedrive should be accessible. This is the easiest way of sharing files with the system.
- There is a D: drive which is labelled as 'Temporary Storage'. Unfortunately you can't actually use it.
- For scratch space it's probably best just to use your home directory on the system (i.e.
Documents
orC:\Users\ab12x\Documents
). Files stored here appear to be persistent between logins, but it would be unwise to depend on this (they probably get scrubbed on a regular cycle). - Licensing restrictions
- COMSOL - this is restricted to Engineering users
- There is a logout icon on the desktop, or you can log out in the usual way.
- Some programs take a long time to start initially.
- Not obvious how to show someone else the screen of the remote system short of sharing your own local screen (suggest sharing the browser or RDP client window only in Zoom or Teams)
Using RDP clients §
This requires a bit more setup and is discouraged by the official instructions. One reason to use the client is if you want to have video and audio passthrough to the remote system (e.g. you wanted to use Zoom or Teams in the remote system, for whatever reason).
You need the new-style RDP client from Microsoft. See the Remote Desktop page for notes on installing this.
Once this is installed, choose + Add
at the top right of the window, and select Workspaces
in the drop-down menu.
In the resulting page enter your email address in the Email or Workspace URL box. After some searching it should announce that Workspaces have been found at https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/api/arm/feeddiscovery
. Once this happens click Subscribe (bottom of the window).
You should now have a list of Windows systems similar to the browser login route. Click on one of them (say COSE Desktop). This should then ask you to choose a login account.
It doesn't use any accounts you may have configured in the settings for individual PC connections - it seems to be a separate list.
You can choose ask me every time, or click the + to and an account. This, again, can be your email address, or the CAMPUS/ab12x style - whatever you prefer. If you leave the password blank it will ask you every time.
The logon then proceeds like any other logon to a remote windows system using the (new-style) RDP client. See the RDP notes for more details.
To unsubscribe from the workspace click on any of the ...
buttons in the list:
and choose Unsubscribe. This unsubscribes you from all the Workspaces.