JHU Hosts Small Windows-based VMs

Unrelated to the CS-hosted Virtual Machines for our department, JHU, itself, hosts small browser-based Windows VMs that you can use, if needed. You might find that you are remote and only have a browser available (perhaps on a public system or at a system outside of JHU where you cannot add software to connect to JHU resources), but you need to remotely get into some kind of desktop on the JHU Network that can be used as a jumping point to other systems within JHU. You can use JHU's myCloud Desktop to do this. You can even use this if you do not have the VPN installed, as it uses Multi-Factor Authentication to allow you access.

If you log into MyJH (https://my.jh.edu), you will find a pull-down menu option called Cloud. You will find myCloud there.

After you first log into it (you'll be prompted for your JHED password), it takes a few minutes for "preparing Windows" to occur. Then the Windows desktop appears as if you're sitting at a real system. This virtual system only provides you approx. 25gb of user drive space called drive H:\, so use your disk space sparingly.

NOTE: When connecting to myCloud, if it only asks you to download a file, and it doesn't actually start up the VM, it might be that you do not have a Citrix client installed. You'll need to download the Citrix Workspace app for your operating system.

Once you are on this myCloud Windows system (via your browser), you can run... various Office tools such as

• Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook)
• Teams
• the Edge browser
• Chrome
• SAP
• Remote Desktop Connection (so you can remote into a system on the JHU Network and possibly onto one outside of JHU that you have access to.)

...and more!

You can even install some software, e.g., Firefox. As long as you don't need admin access, you should be able to install it.

Again, be aware of how much disk space you use due to the home directory's 25gb limit. (We're not sure how much system disk space for installs is available.)

Note: If you're using CS file shares (SMB-based), you can actually mount your CS share within this VM for access to your CS-hosted files.

And finally, this is not a fast system. Some applications might launch or run slowly. But, it is a convenient system when you are remote, limited in your computing resources, and have a browser available to connect to the VM. (Note, we have not tested this ability using a phone browser to connect to myCloud.)

What if you want to do this from your phone or a tablet?

The above info is when you're connecting to myCloud when you're already sitting at your computer. What what if you want to do the same from your android or IOS (iPhone, iPad)-based phone or tablet?

Since this involves cellphones/tablets (which are beyond the scope of equipment that CS IT supports), we can only therefore offer the following guidance to try.

For myCloud to work with a phone or tablet, you'll need a Citrix client installed first. So, search for and install software called Citrix Workspace.

Once installed, go to the myCloud on your phone/tablet, and when you try to access it, it will ask you to download an oddly-named file ending in .ica.

Download that file and once downloaded, open that .ica file. Your phone/tablet should see that it's a Citrix Workspace file and will load it and start up the myCloud VM for you.

If you have issues doing the above, please reach out to JHU IT for support.