While working on Appstream is very similar to a remote desktop experience there are a few differences that are important to get comfortable with. I primarily work in Firefox but have enough experience with Chrome and Edge to be comfortable reporting that the experience seems to be identical across these browser choices.

Left Controls

Here is an image of the controls that should be visible on the left side of the browser window – the numbers above the icons map t0 :

1 – Tile Icon

The Tile icon provides access to the programs we installed on the instance to facilitate your work. All of the programs are available from the icons on the desktop or the menu system but if you click on the Tile icon the list of programs is opened and you can select the program you want to use from that list.

2 – Switch App Icon

If you have multiple applications running/open, each of those is truly in their own window. Rather than switching between applications by clicking on one of the visible elements of an application that is not the current focus you can select this icon to bring up a grid of all open applications to select the one that you want to work with next.

3 – Folder Icon

The Folder icon gives access to the interface to transfer files to and from the platform. It is not used to navigate among the files and folders of the platform. If you want to transfer a file to the platform or if you want to transfer a file from the platform then select this control.

The two folder listed are the parent folders of any directories or files that you want to use/save. The contents of the Home Folder are persistent between sessions. The contents of the Temporary Files are deleted/removed at the end of your current session. To transfer a file/folder in either direction you need to navigate down through one of those choices to find either the destination of the file you want to upload or the file you want to retrieve.

In the image below I have navigated down several layers in a folder tree to a folder called R20090302-C20081231-F35 to select a file I want to download.

This interface only allows you to transfer one object at a time. Thus, when you want to transfer (up or down) a large number of files they need to be compressed (currently we only support the Windows ZIP format) as one object and that object can be transferred and unzipped to give you access to the individual file/folders.

Once you select the Download option the Appstream instance will cause your browser to open the download manager so you can specify the destination of the file/object.

To upload a file you can either select it locally and drop it onto the My Files interface or use the Upload Files control to open a file picker.

4 – Clipboard Icon

If you want to move the contents of your clipboard to or from the instance – select the content you want to transfer using the usual clipboard process and then select the option you want. If you want to retrieve from the Appstream session you need to select Copy to local device. If you want to transfer to the Appstream session you need to select Paste to remote session.

In this example I am going to Past to remote session. Once the content I want to transfer is available in my clipboard and I select the Paste to remote session the transfer box appears.

As indicated by the prompt – Press Ctrl + V and the content of the clipboard will show up in the transfer box and the box will close. In my case I am transferring a list of CIKs to use in a search and I want to paste them into the CIK Filter control. I select that and select the Paste from Clipboard and, move my mouse and click into the interface. I can then either use the Ctrl + V, I can use the right mouse button or the Paste item on the application to drop my list of CIKs into the application.

5 – Settings Icon

AWS offers some session settings that you can control – I have not found any of them to be particularly useful.

6 – Full Screen Icon

If you want to go border-less in your use of the platform – just select the Full Screen icon and you will get a little more usable screen space. I find this helpful when I am working on a laptop or my Surface in particular.

7 – Multiple Monitors – Not Applicable

Right Controls

The Fn provides a shortcut to function keys – which I have never used and then your log-out control.