DaDesktop for Participants – How to

Objective

This guide is aimed at participants (students) who wish to join a course hosted on DaDesktop.

 

Overview of DaDesktop

DaDesktop is a cloud platform especially designed for IT training. It is aimed at IT instructors and learners where virtual desktops based on the revolutionary DaDesktop® technology are used. With these sessions, each participant has their own full online desktop where they can perform exercises with the oversight of the trainer.

Its three main parts are:

1. Management Console -- a web UI for administration of the system, e.g. starting and stopping cloud desktops, etc.
2. Training Room -- a shared space for remote desktop sharing, audio, chat, lesson recording, etc.
3. Remote Desktop -- a virtual machine (Windows or Linux); one machine per user.
    

Requirements

If you want to join from your office or from your home you will need:

• Computer (PC or laptop) with a reliable internet connection (minimum 10Mbit/s download and 1Mbit/s upload). Windows, Mac or Linux machines are supported.
• Chrome or Firefox web browser
• Good quality microphone or headset (telephone is a last resort, though not recommended)
• A quiet place, free from external distractions and noise (a coffee shop won't do)
   

Recommended:

• Webcam
• Second monitor: use one monitor to follow the trainer, and the second screen to use your DaDesktop Virtual Machine for labs.
• Switch off any VPN before joining the course
• Disable any security applications that may conflict with the network connection if at all possible
• Use an Ethernet connection if possible, or if using Wi-Fi, run a test to check your internet speed beforehand, e.g. speedtest.net

You may wish to try joining your course and checking out your DaDesktop virtual classroom before the course starts. If so, please note you will only be able to access the Desktop itself for 15 minutes on days before the course start time.

 

Course Access

Please note that access to your course is restricted to only a 15-minute period outside of the course days.

On course days, access is available all day. Previously this was only permitted an hour or so before the course itself.

 

Keep your Desktop after the course finishes

One great feature of using DaDesktop is that course participants are given the option to continue using their machine once their course has finished. 

Please see the link above for full details on how to do this.

Joining a Course

Open the link sent to you by the course coordinator (e.g., dd4t.dadesktop.com/da/join/xxxxx).

 

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If you are a first-time user, enter your details under "Account" and click “Sign Up”. You can join via the form or alternatively by signing up with your Google or LinkedIn account.

If you already have an account, simply log in.

This will take you to the Management Console for your course.

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Using the Management Console

Click the "TRAINING ROOM" tab.

Click the "Join Training Room" button.

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The Virtual Training Room will open in a new browser window. A pop-up will appear, prompting you to allow items to be copied to the clipboard. Click "Allow".

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Navigating the Training Room as a Participant

The Training Room is displayed with a tab at the top of the screen that provides links back to the course.

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Controls available at bottom of the screen

• Here you can 'pop out' the screen to another monitor if required; the browser window can also be maximised to full screen.
• Likewise, at the bottom right of the screen there is a small blue toggle that appears if you wish to access DaDesktop support chat.

 

Using the new Clipboard function

To pass text such as web links, functions, etc., from your own computer into the Virtual Machine, we use the 'Clipboard'.
 

When you connect to your Online Course or Stand-alone Desktop, a pop-up similar to the one shown here will appear. Click ‘Allow’. Note that images cannot be copied to the clipboard when using DaDesktop at present.

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If you click the small clipboard icon on the address bar, you can change the clipboard settings for this site.

Usage

• On a Windows or Linux VM Desktop, use clipboard copy and paste as usual from your PC, i.e. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V
• On a Mac host, copy as usual and press Shift + Ctrl + V, or mouse middle-click, to paste.

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Please get in touch with us if you require further support when using this feature.
 

Original Clipboard (to be used only for incompatible browsers for the new Clipboard, i.e. Internet Explorer, or as a fallback)

• To copy text between your machine and the virtual DaDesktop machine, type or paste into the clipboard area at the bottom left of the screen.
• On the virtual machine, click the middle mouse button (or mouse wheel) to paste the contents of the clipboard to the desktop. This works for anywhere in DaDesktop where text can be entered. This assumes you are using the standard Linux DaDesktop virtual machine.
  Mac users: use Command-C or ⌘-C (copy), and Command-V or ⌘-V (paste). Once pasted into the dd4t clipboard, inside dd4t it becomes Control-X, Control-C and Control-V for cut, copy and paste.
• If using the Windows virtual machine, right-click to paste from the clipboard.

To resize the clipboard area, click the green and white arrow icon at the bottom left of the screen.
 

 

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Using the mouse in a multi-user scenario

This feature shows the username of the person controlling the mouse, which follows the mouse cursor when more than one user is connected to the same desktop. This is especially useful for multi-user scenarios, and for training activities where different users may take control of the mouse at different times.

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If more than one user is connected to the desktop, their usernames are shown at the centre bottom of the screen.

 

 

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This feature can be enabled or disabled as you wish by clicking the ‘Info’ button in green at the bottom of the screen.