The virtual workspace can be also accessed using the Citrix Workspace app. Using the app has some advantages, mainly the option to make your local data directly available for the virtual environment and its software, but also provides some more advantages concerning the general performance.

To be able to use the Citrix workspace app, it first needs to be installed on your local devices. If it is not yet present on your system, you can use one of the Citrix installers which are provided for all major operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux).

The example in this section and the screenshots will assume the Windows version. Depending on the OS that you are using and the version of the current Citrix app at the time, certain aspects might be slightly different.

After you installed the Citrix app, no further configurations are needed locally. We will get this info directly via the web portal of the virtual workspace.

To start a session in the Citrix Workspace app, first open uwp.rug.nl again in a web browser and authenticate with your UG credentials.

After login, do not directly start a virtual session, instead open your account settings via the cogwheel button at the top-right corner. Then select “Settings” to open your user settings.

In your settings, you will find at the bottom an option to “Change Citrix Workspace app”. Select this to adjust the usage of the Citrix Workspace app.

You will be presented with a Window that gives you a selection between a “light version” and a “full version”. Use full version for Citrix Workspace app or use light version for browser. The text specifies which version you have currently selected. Be sure that it says that you are using the full version, then continue with the next steps.

After having the full version selected, go back to “DESKTOPS” and then start a new virtual sessions via the “Workspace Desktop” button. This will now not start your session in a browser window, instead a *.ica file will be downloaded.

This *.ica file contains all the info that the Citrix app needs to start your virtual session. If you have the Citrix Workspace app installed, clicking on the file should start your virtual session in the app.

During startup, it will ask you if you want to give the application permissions to your local file system and attached devices. For the full functionality, both features should be enabled, but if this is needed depends on your use case.

It is also possible to adjust the different settings later on. For that, you can reveal the Citrix menu at the top of your current session, then select the “Preferences” tab to open the preferences of the app.

The preference provide you with the following important adjustments:

• File Access: This setting allows to define how the Citrix app is able to interact with your local file system. To be able to access local data to work with software in the virtual environment (see below), you should at least assign it “Read only” permissions. If you also want to write from your virtual environment to your local system, “Read and write” should be assigned here.
• Connections: Here you can select if Citrix app should have access to some local devices, for example webcams and printers.
• Display: Adjust some settings about how the virtual display should behave/scale. The recommended option here is “Best resolution”.
• Monitor layout: Can be just to fine tune the layout of your virtual session if needed.

One of the special features of the Citrix Workspace it is its ability to directly interact with your local file system which basically means that you can access your local files from the virtual environment as if they were available in the environment. It can be also used to easily transfer data between your local system and the virtual environment, or more precisely, the UG provides storage solutions (mainly X/Y drive).

In this example, we assume that “Read and write” access where given to the Citrix Workspace app as explained above.

If you now open the Windows File Explorer in the Citrix session, you should see not just the UG network drives, but also (at least one) “Local Disk”). This is your local hard drive. In the provides example screenshot, it is one disk which is the C: drive on the local system that was used to create the screenshot.

You can now transfer data between both environment, for example via copy/paste or drag and drop, directly in the virtual session. This does not only work for files, but can be also applied to whole folders.

Moreover, you can even start software in the virtual environment and access data that is stored in your local system. This is a great feature if you want to work remotely on your data with software that is available for you in the virtual workspace!

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