Remote Access to Colgate Licensed Software (AWS Appstream)

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Appstream brings Colgate students, faculty, and staff access to a virtual Colgate computer lab wherever they may be. This is the recommended method for remotely accessing software such as Matlab, Maple, Stata, ArcGIS, SPSS, the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, and more. Appstream is designed to look and feel like a normal Colgate computer lab desktop. 

Appstream works with modern web browsers (such as Chrome or Safari) and requires no additional software. Users can work with one or two monitors, save files directly to Google Drive, and even print locally to their own printers.

When you end your Appstream session, the computer resets back to its default blank state and any unsaved work will be lost. We strongly recommend using Google Drive to save your files. If the virtual instance is idle for 60 minutes, it will also reset and any unsaved work will be lost.

Mac OS X apps are not available through Appstream.

User Guides

Step 1

Launch Appstream. When prompted, login with your Portal username and password.

Colgate login screen

Step 2

When logged in, you will see a screen with all the apps available, including a special icon called Desktop:

  • Desktop has access to every application via a normal start menu
  • Clicking any other icon for any other app will take you directly to that app
Screenshot of all the app icons in Appstream

Step 3

If no one else has opened this app recently, you may be prompted to wait while the instance starts up. The app will typically be ready in two minutes or fewer.

Screenshot of the session preparation progress meter

Step 4

Some applications may ask you to authenticate a second time. If so, you may again sign in using your Portal username and password.

Screenshot of additional login prompt

Step 5

While using the desktop application, the experience will look and function like a standard Windows desktop.

Screenshot of a standard Windows desktop

Step 6

While using the desktop application, it may request to use the clipboard. If so, you should choose Allow.

Screenshot of the prompt requesting to use the clipboard

You may wish to use Google Drive as a means of accessing and saving files while using Appstream. To access your Google Drive during an Appstream session, you must first add your Google Drive account within AppStream.

You only need to do this once; Appstream will then remember to reconnect with each future session.

Step 1

In the top left of the AppStream toolbar, choose the My Files icon.

Step 2

In the My Files dialog box, choose Add Storage.

Screenshot showing the location of the Add Storage button

Step 3

Choose Google Drive.

Screenshot highlighting the Google Drive option

Step 4

Choose the @colgate.edu domain for your Google Drive account.

Screenshot showing where to select the proper domain

Step 5

The Sign in with Google dialog box displays. Type the user name and password for your Google Drive account when prompted.

Step 6

After your Google Drive account is added to AppStream, your Google Drive folder displays in My Files.

Screenshot showing Google Drive within the My Files section

Step 7

To work with your files and folders in Google Drive, choose the Google Drive folder and browse to the file or folder you want. If you do not want to work with files in Google Drive during this streaming session, close the My Files dialog box.

Step 8

Uploading and downloading files between your local computer and Google Drive

If you are using Google Drive to work with your files in Appstream, you may also need to transfer files between your local computer and Google Drive.

You can either:

Step 9

Once your Google Drive is connected to Appstream, all applications will have access to save files to, and open files from, Google Drive.

Step 1

Please save any work to Google Drive. The Appstream session will reset when you choose to end the session, or when the system detects it has been idle for 60 minutes.

At this point, any unsaved work will be lost.

Step 2

After saving, click the ‘person’ icon, then select End session from the menu.

Screenshot of the End session option in Appstream