POC End User Guides

Get Acquainted with the New POC Viewer
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CloudShare Support
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CloudShare's latest Viewer brings many productive new capabilities to your POC or demo experience, like smart layouts, easier to access menus and more.

Here's a guide to help you quickly get familiar with the Viewer.

Note

Currently, in order to use CloudShare's latest Viewer, a user with sufficient access Role permissions needs to set it as the Viewer of choice for the POC or demo. For a guide to CloudShare's legacy viewer, click here.

About the Viewer

CloudShare's Viewer provides a full-featured, intuitive way to interact with your environment. It enables you to simultaneously access:

  • configured Virtual Machines (VMs) and external resources like public clouds;

  • additional user content and resources, when provided;

  • built-in video conferencing features; and

  • tools for collaboration with others, like chat and personal assistance features, when available.

Our Viewer design makes it simple for you to multi-task your activities with all of the components described above, and more.

 
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Active Workspace

Here is where you work with the components that are available in your environment.

Top Tabs

The tabs above the workspace provide an instant view of all the VMs and other resources in the environment. Each resource is represented by a separate tab.

Just click a tab to show its content in the workspace. The active tab is highlighted.

If a VM fails to load, or has errors, a notification will appear in the active workspace.

Left Side Menu

A resource may also be positioned at the left side of the workspace. When located here, it can be activated anytime as a Content Panel, even while there is a VM or other component active in the workspace.

Example left side resources include: an overview, user or course materials, and external web links.

Clicking on the burger menu Viewer2021-Hamburger_icon.png icon at the top of this menu expands the names of each available resource. Just click a menu item to show its panel. To close a panel, click on its menu item again.

Note

A VM cannot be displayed in the Left Side Menu. It can only appear among the Top Tabs.

Content Panels

You can view a Content Panel while accessing other active workspace components, like VMs.

To open a panel, click its name in the Left Side Menu. To close a panel, click on its menu name again.

Whlle it is open, a Content Panel can be adjusted to provide the optimum viewing experience for your current activity. Just drag the adjustment handle on the panel to the ideal width.

Environment Details

At the upper left of the Viewer you can see key details about your current environment, like its name, remaining runtime and endtime.

You can also access any Environment Actions that are currently available to you, including:

  • Revert - Returns the session to its original state (the saved version of the environment). This effectively starts the entire session over, removing all of your work. If the environment has external cloud resources configured, these will be reverted as well.

  • Suspend - Stops any activity, stores the environment in its current state and shuts down all of its resources.

  • Show the Cloud Folder - Makes your Cloud Folders available on a VM in the environment.

Viewer Info

Provides access to recent CloudShare notifications, the Viewer language selector, Help links, and your user account details.

Settings and Tools

CloudShare provides all the settings you need for full control over your Viewer experience. More details on each function are provided below.
 

Viewer Settings and Tools

While using the Viewer, you can make various settings and adjustments, transfer text, get credentials, upload files and more.

Viewer-Settings_ToolsMenu_030321.png

The settings and tools available to you will vary according to the resource you are using at the moment. For example, if a VM is currently active you'll see options for displaying its connection details.

 

 

Public Clouds

This menu item is displayed when external resources are being using in the environment.

Provides access to the external Public Clouds log for the current session, and also displays any available credentials for the external cloud resources currently being used.

Connectivity

The active remote access Connection Type is always highlighted above the Settings and Tools menu:

Viewer-ActiveConnectionType_120521.png

The connection types that are available to you will vary, depending on the OS being used by the VM.

To change between connection types, simply click the desired type. The active VM will reconnect using the selected type.

The Connectivity menu provides access to the following Viewer connection settings and functions:

  • Reconnect - Issues a reconnect command to the active VM.

  • Download RDP (Windows OS only) - Downloads a Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) file for the active VM to your local machine. For more details, click here.

  • Connectivity Test - Runs a standard websocket and speed test for the active resource.

    If you are experiencing difficulty connecting to a resource, or your connection seems to be running slowly, this function can provide relevant information from inside the Viewer. For help in understanding test results, click here.

  • Connection Details - Shows key information about the connection to the current VM, including login credentials, IP address, and resources allotted. Whenever needed, you can copy this information for use elsewhere.

Display

Provides access to the following Viewer display settings:

  • Resolution (Windows OS only) - Enables you to select the display resolution use for the active resource from a dropdown list. The resolutions shown will depend on your resource characteristics.

  • Color Depth - Enables you to select a display color depth of 8, 16 or 32 bits for the active resource.

  • Sound Configuration - Provides a popup menu that allows you to enable or disable audio card functionality for the active resource.

    When available, the popup will also show a High Quality option to provide audio sampling frequency and/or bit depth that is greater than 44.1 kHz/16 bit.

  • Full Screen - Displays the active resource in full screen mode. In this mode, no Viewer menus or functionality are available, however a popup menu is provided with relevant functions to enable work with the resource.

    To exit this mode, press Esc or click Exit from the popup menu.

Keyboard

Provides access to various Viewer keyboard settings. The settings available will vary, depending on the VM type (e.g., Linux or Windows) that is currently active:

  • VM Clipboard (Windows OS only) - Enables you to transfer a clipboard of text between the local computer and a VM. For more details, click here.

  • Send Text (Non-Windows OS) - Enables you to transfer a buffer of text between the local computer and a VM. For more details, click here.

  • Control-V Function - Enables you to configure Control-V or Command-V functionality for a VM. For more details, click here.

  • Send Username - Transmits the current username for the active VM as plain text.

  • Send Password - Transmits the current password for the active VM as plain text.

  • Send Ctrl-Alt-Del - Simulates sending the Ctrl-Alt-Del key combination to the active VM in order to 'reboot' it.

  • Send Windows Key (Windows OS only) - Simulates sending the Windows key to the active VM in order to invoke a Windows-related or other special function.

  • Back, Forward, Home (Internet pages only) - Sends the associated page command to the active resource.

  • Keyboard Language - Displays a dropdown list that enables you to select the language that the keyboard uses and transmits to the active VM.

File Upload

Provides a file browser dialog that enables you to transfer local files to the active VM.

Files are transferred to the Uploads folder. This location of this folder will vary depending on the operating system of the active VM.
 
 

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