Using the PCoIP Host Software User Interface

After you install the PCoIP Host Sofware package, the user interface (UI) is available in the Windows system tray. To access the UI, double-click the icon located in the Windows system tray, as shown next.

Host Software Icon

The UI provides multiple tabs that enables you to access different features.

The UI supports an additional feature that lets you disconnect the PCoIP session, if one is active. To initiate this feature:

  • Right-click the UI icon in the Windows system tray and select Disconnect PCoIP Session.

    Icon Properties

  • Call the pcoip_agent.exe executable with the -disconnect command-line argument. This method is useful for making a disconnect-session shortcut, or mapping to a favorite key on some keyboards.

Executable Location

The executable is located in the installation directory. The default install directory is C:\Program Files\Teradici Corporation\PCoIP Host Software.

The PCoIP Host Software also supports an IT auditing feature that writes information about the workstation and PCoIP host card to a file. To invoke this feature, call the pcoip_agent.exe executable with the -info <filename> command line option. The following is an example of the contents of an output file:

Host Name: desktop1
Host IP: 192.168.0.13
Host MAC: 00-2b-68-33-11-28
PCoIP Host SW Version: 3.5.10b
PCoIP Host SW Build Date: Jan 24 2012 17:04:42
PCoIP Host card MAC: 00-30-04-0D-61-26
PCoIP Host card IP: 192.168.99.21

The PCoIP UI is automatically started during Windows startup. The UI is the only configurable software in the software package.

PCoIP Host Software Features Tab

The following figure shows the Features tab of the UI.

Features Tab

Security

The Security feature lets you lock the PC or workstation to ensure other users do not log into another user’s session when the user disconnects from a PCoIP session.

  • Lock host PC upon session termination: Select this option to lock the Host PC when a PCoIP session is disconnected.

WAN Experience

The WAN Experience local cursor and keyboard features may be useful in WAN deployments where network latency exceeds 40-60 ms. In these environments, users may notice a visible lag between the movement of the mouse and the movement of the cursor. Key presses may be dropped or falsely repeated key presses may occur under very high network latency scenarios. Both of these side effects of high-network latency hinder user experience. The local cursor and keyboard features help lessen latency effects.

Latency effects are noticed differently by users. With network latency less than 40 ms, most users notice the local cursor overlay and desktop cursor moving in tandem. With higher network latencies, the local cursor overlay moves according to the user’s movements, and the desktop cursor follows with visible lag. Because the overlay provides instantaneous feedback, the user can move the mouse freely without having to wait for the desktop cursor to catch up.

WAN Experience

The PCoIP Host Software stores separate copies of the WAN Experience configuration settings for each client a user connects to a host from. This lets users enable the feature on certain clients and disable it on other clients. This is useful when a user connects to a host from a client at work over a LAN connection and another client at home over a WAN connection. In this scenario the user might disable the Local Cursor and Keyboard feature for the work client and enable the feature for the home client.

Settings for each user account

You can configure the PCoIP Host Software configuration settings for each user account on the PC or workstation.

  • Enable Local Cursor and Keyboard: The local cursor is enabled when this option is selected and the mouse device’s movements are recorded at the client. The movement is reflected via the local cursor overlay in real time. The movements and mouse clicks are sent to the PCoIP host and then to a driver via the exposed PCoIP Host Function PCI device and device drivers. When the driver receives the movement information, the cursor on the workstation is updated.

    The local keyboard feature works on a similar concept. The client captures and records keyboard key presses, and then sends them to the PCoIP host. This feature prevents key presses from being dropped. The local keyboard feature does not display an overlay for the typed text, and the text that appears on the screen is affected by the network latency.

    Considerations

    • The Enable Local Cursor and Keyboard option may be grayed out if not supported. When this happens, a “Why is this unavailable?” link appears on the UI Features tab. Move the mouse over the link to see a tooltip explaining how to fix the problem.

    • PCoIP Host Software release 3.2.20 and firmware release 3.2.0 add support for rotated displays. Users who want to use the Enable Local Cursor and Keyboard feature on systems with rotated displays may encounter problems. See for details.

    • When a soft client session is active, you cannot disable the Enable Local Cursor and Keyboard feature. See Soft Client Restrictions for details.