Windows 7 on Apple iPad with Citrix Receiver

The main advantage of virtualization technologies for the office is access to your data and programs from any computer anywhere in the world. However, it is not necessary to use a laptop or a regular office PC: you can also access data from your mobile phone if you wish. The Citrix Receiver utility , which provides access to the virtual OS in XenDesktop, works on almost all smartphones: there are versions for the iPhone, devices running BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile.

Introduced in the spring of this year, the Apple iPad tablet for such tasks is much better: it, unlike mobile phones, has a diagonal and screen resolution comparable to those of ordinary PCs. If on a smartphone access to the virtual desktop is an option rather for emergencies when there is nothing else at hand, then on the iPad you can fully work in the familiar Windows environment.




Citrix Receiver for iPad was released almost immediately after the start of sales of the device, and in the spring even for some time was the most popular business application for the Apple tablet. This is a free app available on the App Store. After borrowing a new iPad 3G from our SUP colleagues (for which many thanks to them!), We quickly installed the application, and then, in fact, the most interesting thing began. To enter the system, not only an ordinary login-password pair is used, but also a special variable code that changes every minute. The code is generated by the stand-alone RSA Secure ID keychain supported by Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise.

Citrix servers use XenDesktop (provides the virtual operating system) and XenApp (is responsible for delivering applications to a virtual or physical environment). Such a tandem provides high reliability: even in the event of a serious failure in the operation of any application, this will not affect the operation of the virtual OS as a whole.



This is how the virtual OS control panel looks from the administrator. However, additional configuration for working virtual Windows 7 on the iPad, as well as on any other device, is not required.



On the device itself, after entering the credentials, you can select one of the available virtual environments and download it.

Work with the interface



It’s better to see how Windows 7 works on iPad: watch the video. Almost the only noticeable difference from working on a regular PC is that drag and drop requires a long press on a shortcut or interface element. The usual movement of a finger across the screen allows you to move around the desktop in zoom mode. With a pinch-to-zoom gesture, you can zoom in or out, which is very useful for working with small elements, for example, with cells in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Typing using a virtual keyboard does not cause problems, but “double-clicking” misfires periodically: nevertheless, the touch screen takes some getting used to, but it also takes time for an ordinary Windows tablet to adapt.

Connection speed



How fast you can work with Windows on your Apple iPad depends on the speed of your network connection. The technology developed by Citrix saves maximum traffic by sending only information about changes on the desktop. Therefore, when typing in Word, the traffic between the server and the device is negligible, but if you watch photos on a slow channel or constantly switch between different websites, there may be delays. By the way, Citrix Receiver on iPad can work both through WiFi and through a 3G connection.

2D and 3D

High-speed access to the Internet opens up more possibilities: on the iPad, music, video, and even three-dimensional applications are broadcast without problems. The transmission of multimedia content is ensured by a set of Citrix HDX technologies .



This is what the HDX Monitor program looks like, which allows you to estimate the amount of data transferred, the transmission speed and the bandwidth used for certain tasks. For ordinary "office" tasks, a channel with a data transfer rate of 20-30 kilobits per second is required - that is, even a GPRS connection is suitable. Graphics and video, and even with sound, may require already 2-3 megabits per second. The work of three-dimensional applications is provided by HDX 3D technology, which connects the user to a remote workstation with a powerful graphics card and allows you to use its resources. In this mode, not only a high data transfer rate is required, but also a low latency - no more than 200-300 milliseconds.

Impressions

Citrix Receiver uses all the features of the Apple iPad, including MultiTouch gestures, and allows you to fully work with Windows, as much as it is possible in principle on a device without a keyboard and mouse. The tablet's performance is more than enough to display a virtual desktop: only the quality of the Internet connection can affect the speed of drawing windows. In addition to standard office programs, we tried to launch a simple game on the iPad. Constantly updated graphics and soundtrack dramatically increased the load on the network, but Citrix Receiver coped with this task without any problems. In general, if you own an iPad and use Citrix technology, you no longer have to take your laptop with you on vacation or on a business trip. You can check your mail, view documents and work with familiar programs on your tablet,