A while ago I noticed that I’ve got an icon for a “Citirix Environment” on my computer at work. IT evidently installed it in one of their patches, but never thought to tell us what it means. Can someone explain it for me?
thanks.
I think it’s something to do with remote access. We are meant to be getting the mysterious Citrix here at work in the next few weeks, but nobody seems to know much about it. I believe it will allow us to access our work PCs from home.
Have a look here and see if it looks familiar: Explore Citrix Products for Enterprise and Medium Business - Citrix
Citrix is a corporation well known for its products in distributed computing.
What this means for you as a user is, instead of having a PC that has tons of applications set up on it, you have a PC with just one application (Citrix remote access) that gives you a virtual desktop in a window. Typically people expand this window to take up most or all of the screen (best if you have two screens and one screen is dedicated to this “remote session”).
The “virtual desktop” looks just like you’re working on another PC, it has its own “Start” button at the bottom, its own set of applications and defaults and permissions, etc., etc.
This way they can centrally control a uniform desktop environment for all users, without worrying that Bob in Accounting has installed different versions of something, or added Chrome gadgets on his desktop, or uses a different screensaver that’s causing problems for such-and-such program… They know what everyone has and can deploy changes centrally.
In addition, you can reconnect to your Citrix session from home, on the road via laptop or anywhere else and it will look the same.
It also allows for certain kinds of software to be bought with a server license without having to buy N individual copies to install for N users.
Citrix is a virtual computing environment. That means that you can run applications from a remote server that look like they are running on your local computer. Citrix is common in corporate settings to run enterprise type software like database applications. At my last job, I could run any critical corporate software from anywhere just by starting it from a web browser. This is really useful for people that do work from home or on the road. There are obviously lots of security features built into it as well.
Ah, the penny drops! Pandemic planning! They want us to be able to work from home if the flu pandemic strikes.
This also helps with solicitor-client privilege issues. There’s an ongoing concern about carrying documents that are covered by solicitor-client privilege around on a laptop, especially if you’re flying, and especially if you’re flying internationally, since customs and immigration laws allow border officials to search your computer if they wish.
This would allow me to keep all the documents stored on our system at the office, and work on them remotely, and yet not have the docs on my laptop - is that right?
Much as installing Citrix here was painfull as HELL, I have to admit, the remote access is divine. One time with the help desk, and from then on, you can log on at home anytime you want.
They control everything though. Stuff like task bars, file folders, desktops - all inaccessible to the average user.
That is right depending on the way it is set up. Once you get good at using it, Citrix is very useful as long as the IT folks did a good job of building the environment. You could be on a computer in Thailand and still have access to everything as long as you have an internet conection.
a) For anyone who has used both: how does it compare to Microsoft’s implementation of remote desktop / terminal services?
b) Is there a Mac client? (I assume there is no Mac SERVER, even if there is, right? Or is there?)
There is a mac client. I use it occasionally for some financial software.
It looks like windows when it’s actually running and you can do it over very shitty connections too.
Completely different. It’s not a simple VNC or X server remote viewer. It uses your local PC as a thin-client to one or more backend servers as hosts. Well, it’s more like X in that respect, as in *nix you can have any number of sessions.
That’s how the Mac client for Windows Terminal Services (it was renamed, right? “Remote Desktop Connection”? Same critter that used to be called TS though, I believe – ?) works, also.
But that’s what Remote Desktop Connection does also, right? I mean, it’s NOT like VNC or Timbuktu or Apple Remote Desktop or gotomypc.com or logmein.com etc etc etc… that is, you do NOT see what Joe User who actually OWNS that machine sees, nor does Joe User see you moving his cursor around like a ghost in the machine. Instead, you get your own separate session — you have to log on to Windows, you “experience” the computer as a unique set of interactions, entirely separate from what Joe User might see if Joe walked over to the actual Terminal Services box and stared at the monitor.
Different uses.
Microsoft’s remote desktop allows you to log on to a computer and run the computer remotely.
Citrix lets you run programs remotely; you are not logging onto a computer. In fact, it’s often installed as a virtual computer – the “computer” is just a part of memory on a server. When you run, say, Word on Citrix, you have access to Word (and to any network folders).
At work, I use remote desktop to log on to computers to install software and clean viruses (I’m in IT). I use Citrix to open Word and edit files. (I also am the in-house expert on telling users how to use Citrix.)
Another use is that programs can be put onto the Citrix server and be accessed without having to install them on multiple computers. For instance, we have a program SPSS that students use for survey data. Instead of installing it on hundreds of lab computers, or having students buy copies for their own computers, we put it up on Citrix and they all can use it.
As others have said, you can run it on a Mac, and once you’re connected to the Citrix server, using it even as dialup is just like using the computer at your desk.
Citrix and MS Terminal Services/Remote Desktop are almost identical, because MS licensed Citrix’s technology. In turn, Citrix products are allowed to have somewhat more features and bells and whistles. Eg, Terminal Server can’t do seamless apps (apps that run on another computer but look local).
Two people cannot use Remote Desktop concurrently, without a serious hack. The local person essentially gets logged out while the remote session is occurring.
I’ve been using Citrix since, oh, 2003? And thank God for it. I much prefer working at home.
Can you customize your user profiles on Citrix? For example, I hate the default settings in Word (e.g. auto-“correct” and the delayed “personalized” menu drop-downs that I must always turn off), and I also set up a lot of macros to type special characters like “°C, μL,” etc. I wish there was a way to save these settings somehow and apply them in a remote-access situation.
I work at home one day a week (would that it were more!) and when I sign on, the software launches my “Citrix experience.” I always brace myself in my chair.
Citrix experience. Heh. Sounds like a pharmaceutical commercial.
Well, it does depend on the setup. In our case, Citrix uses the same user profile that your desktop computer does, so all the settings go with it.