DaDesktop for Participants - Howto

Objective

This guide is for participants (students) keen 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, eg 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're joining from your office or home, you'll need:

• A computer (PC or laptop) with a reliable internet connection (at least 10Mbit/s download and 1Mbit/s upload). Windows, Mac, or Linux machines are supported.
• Chrome or Firefox web browser
• A good quality microphone or headset (a phone is a last resort, though not recommended).
• A quiet place, free from distractions and noise (a coffee shop is not suitable).
   

Recommended:

• Webcam
• A second monitor; use one screen to follow the trainer, and the second to use your DaDesktop Virtual Machine for labs.
• Turn off any VPN before joining the course
• Disable any security software that could interfere with your network connection, if possible
• Use an Ethernet connection if possible, or if you're on WiFi, run a speed test beforehand (e.g., speedtest.net).

You might like to try joining your course and checking out your DaDesktop virtual classroom before the course starts. If you do, please note that you'll 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 allowed for an hour or so before the course started.

 

Keep Desktop after Course finishes

One great feature of using DaDesktop is that course participants have the option to keep using their machine after their course finishes.

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

Joining a Course

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

 

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If you are a first time user, fill in your details under "Account" and click “Sign Up”. You can sign up 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, asking 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 shown 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 needed, and the browser window can be maximised to full screen.
• At the bottom right of the screen, a small blue toggle appears if you want to access the DaDesktop support chat.

 

Using the new Clipboard function

To copy text like web links, functions, etc. from your own computer to the Virtual Machine, we use the Clipboard.
 

When you connect to your Online Course or stand-alone Desktop, a pop-up like the one shown will appear. Click Allow. NB: Images cannot currently be copied to the clipboard when using DaDesktop.

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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 Windows and Linux VM desktops, use 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 use the middle mouse button, to paste.

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

Original Clipboard (only for use with browsers incompatible with the new Clipboard, such as Internet Explorer, or as a fallback)

• To copy text from your machine to the DaDesktop virtual 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 clipboard contents to the desktop. This works anywhere in DaDesktop where text can be entered. This assumes you're using the standard Linux DaDesktop virtual machine.
  For 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, C, and V for cut, copy, and paste respectively.
• 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 next to the cursor when more than one user is connected to the same desktop. It's especially useful for multi-user scenarios and 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 in the centre bottom part 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.