Two Bucks students using Macbooks in the Library

AppsAnywhere

AppsAnywhere

AppsAnywhere, is a web service, which provides access to many of the software applications used for teaching and studying. It can be used from your own device or from a University owned PC or laptop, from any location. 

You can use AppsAnywhere on your own computer to access many of the applications that you would normally access via a student desktop machine. AppsAnywhere is available on Windows and Mac devices. 

 

Introduction

Click below to see an introductory video to AppsAnywhere. 

 

 

AppsAnywhere has two parts.  The first part is a web portal from which you can view the catalogue of software applications and operates very much like an app store. The second part is a small client application, called the Cloudpaging Player (in Windows devices) and Parallels (in MacOS and iOS) that runs on your computer to help launch the applications. 

 

There are over 100 applications and utilities available, and this number continues to grow as we add more software packages to the service. 

Find the full list of available software here. 

Getting started

If you are using an on-campus PC, you will find AppsAnywhere as a shortcut on the desktop and as an item in the Start menu. Login using your BNU username and password - students login using their StudentID and password and staff login using their University email, i.e. FirstName.LastName@bucks.ac.uk. Select ‘I have it already!’ if prompted to install.  

If you are a Staff using a University provided laptop, click on the Start menu and go to the Software Centre or search for ‘Software Centre’ from the Start menu search box. Select the AppsAnywhere Client icon and click install. Login to AppsAnywhere on your browser using your University email, i.e. FirstName.LastName@bucks.ac.uk and password. Select ‘I have it already!’ if prompted to install. 

If you are using a personal device, you will need to install AppsAnywhere in your device, by following the instructions given below. 

 

Please follow the given instructions to install AppsAnywhere on your personal Windows device. 

1. Go to AppsAnywhere and log into your account. Students login using their StudentID, i.e. 12345678 and password. Staff login using their University email, i.e. John.Doe@bucks.ac.uk and password. 

2. Click the Install now button in the window that appears to download the AppsAnywhere installer. 

 

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3. Click the download to open the installer, which will check if AppsAnywhere is already installed and then proceed through the installation process automatically.

 

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4. Once the installation is complete, you will be returned to the browser. When prompted, check the box that says “Always allow appsanywhere.bucks.ac.uk to open links of this type in the associated app”, and then click Open AppsAnywhere Launcher.

 

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5. A purple icon should appear in the bottom right which indicates the validation is in progress.

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6. When validation completes, the icon will change into a green check mark.

 

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7. AppsAnywhere is now ready to run applications. Home screen shown below lists recently used applications, to access whole list of application go to View all Applications.

 

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Applications in AppsAnywhere have different installation or launch options. Each app’s default launch option will be displayed below its name.

Launch

To run the application, click the Launch button under the app icon.

 

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If prompted with a popup window, click Open AppsAnywhere Launcher.

 

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AppsAnywhere will detect whether this application has already been installed on your machine (launched previously or locally Installed)) or the application needs virtualizing (launched via Cloudpaging player) and will act accordingly.

When app is being launched via Cloudpaging Player, this is a screen which you expect to see. A popup window informing about app being launched shows up, then you will get a system notification (1) that app was added to list of applications on Cloudpaging Player. Cloudpaging Player will be opened as well, which can be seen from the Taskbar (2) or through Show hidden icons (3).

 

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Apps launched previously from AppsAnywhere will be listed in the Cloudpaging Player, from where application can be Launched, Stopped, or Removed. Simply right click the application to reach these options.

 

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Clicking this option will open a browser window and navigate to the website where you can reach the service, or download the app and view installation instructions.

These applications benefit from AppsAnywhere categorization, the ability to be added to AppsAnywhere App Lists, and from being linked through a trusted BNU resource.

 

Please follow the given instructions to install AppsAnywhere on your personal Mac device.

1. Go to AppsAnywhere and log into your account. Students login using their StudentID, i.e. 12345678 and password. Staff login using their University email, i.e. John.Doe@bucks.ac.uk and password.

2. Click the Install now button in the window that appears to download the AppsAnywhere installer.

 

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3. If prompted, Allow downloads on appsanywhere.bucks.ac.uk. Click on the downloaded file to open the installer, which will check if AppsAnywhere is already installed and then proceed through the installation process automatically (Allow/ Confirm if prompted for granting permissions).

 

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4. Click I have completed the installation, then you will be returned to the browser. When prompted, “Do you want to allow this page to open “AppsAnywhere”?”, click Allow.

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5. A purple icon should appear in the bottom right which indicates the validation is in progress.

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6. When validation completes, the icon will change into a green check mark.

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Note: If your validation fails, don’t panic. This is very normal for first validation after your machine boots; all you have to do is to retry validation and validation will most likely succeed after that. Should you have further issues with validation, please go to section FAQs – “My session didn’t validate. What should I do?”

7. You will be taken to the home screen. You can access the apps via BNU Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs). To access VDIs, click View all Applications

 

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You will see a list of greyed out applications, with only a few appearing active. This is normal for accessing AppsAnywhere from Mac machines - list of applications is for your reference only - it tells you which applications you can expect to have access to while being connected via VDIs.

Note: AppsAnywhere icon will appear in applications list on your personal device. However, clicking on the icon will not open AppsAnywhere. It always needs to be accessed via the web browser by visiting appsanywhere.bucks.ac.uk.

 

 

As Mac devices do not natively support AppsAnywhere, the applications are accessed from university Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which are virtual machines preconfigured and set up exactly as those you can find on physical campus premisses.

Open AppsAnywhere in your browser and login with your credentials. Click on View all applications. You will see a list of greyed out applications, with only a few appearing active. Scroll down and load more applications to see the active VDIs. Based on the course you are undertaking, you will have access to one of the three Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs)- BNU Open Access (for all students), BNU Animation (for animation courses students), or G113 (for CAD students).

 

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Launch the VDI which is available for you. When prompted “Do you want to allow this page to open “Parallels Client”?”, click Allow. If prompted at any point about granting access to a folder, tick “Don’t ask me again” and click Confirm.

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Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) gives you access to and resources of a Windows PC in the University. Login with your StudentID and password as you would normally do to access a machine in University

VDI runs as an application on your personal machine. Your machine runs a virtual environment via Parallels client, and you will see it appearing as a standalone window, which you can exit any time simply by closing the window.

From the desktop screen you can access the applications from the Start menu.

Note: If you don’t see applications list, allow more time until all resources are loaded. In rare cases, applications will not be available when searched from the VDI. The steps to get access to applications in such scenario are to go to Web browser, open appsanywhere.bucks.ac.uk website and carry on as if you were opening AppsAnywhere from personal Windows device (See section Launching Apps in Windows devices). AppsAnywhere is already installed on all VDIs, so all user needs to do is find the application they need from the View all applications screen and click Launch button under chosen application.

Managing your App lists

 

Applications in AppsAnywhere can be favourited by clicking on the app icon or name followed by clicking the heart icon.

 

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You can view your Favourites from any device from the Home page or by clicking the Favourites section on appsanywhere.bucks.ac.uk.

 

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App Lists can be an effective way for people to designate and share specific sets of apps for a course or group. This may be useful for faculty looking to share a comprehensive list of all software relevant to their coursework in a single link.

1. Click + Create List in the lefthand side menu.

 

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2. Name your App list and click Create list.

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3. Search for the app(s) you want to add to the list, then click Add.

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4. Click Done to save your list.

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Frequently Asked Questions

 

Use your BNU Username and Password. The same ones you use to access a PC on campus.

 

If your session didn’t validate for any reason, you will see a prompt about it in the righthand side bottom corner.

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There may be a variety of reasons why your session validation fails. AppsAnywhere troubleshooter is a detailed and approachable guide covering the most faced issues and their solutions. By following their troubleshooting guidelines, you can solve potential issues that cause your session validation fail.

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Follow suggested troubleshooting steps, they are simple and self-explanatory. This will solve vast majority of issues. If you complete all the troubleshooting steps, however, your session still doesn’t validate, contact the Service Desk.

 

'Cloudpaging' is the technology that enables applications to run locally on your Windows computer without having to first be downloaded or installed. These ‘Cloudpaging’ applications run locally on your computer. This means they appear on your Start Menu and work the same as installed applications. Each time you restart your computer the Cloudpaging Player will load automatically, so any applications you have launched from AppsAnywhere can still be used.

 

You may notice the Parallels Player on your Mac. The Parallels will be installed automatically when you install the AppsAnywhere Client on your Mac computer. This is needed to launch applications available in AppsAnywhere.

 

To report an issue with AppsAnywhere, or to request an application to be added to the AppsAnywhere, please contact the Service Desk. Software applications must meet both licensing and performance criteria to be included.

 

If you need to remove a Cloudpaging application from your computer, you can do so quickly and easily.

  1. From your desktop, click the Start menu and type Cloudpaging Player.
  2. Open Cloudpaging Player, right-click the application you want to remove and then the Remove button.
  3. All components of the application will be removed (from the Player and your Start Menu).
  4. If you wish to launch the application in future, you can access it again from AppsAnywhere.

 

The first time you run an application in AppsAnywhere, you will need to download the application from our servers and install it on your PC. Over a slow internet connection, this may take some time. You can monitor the progress of the installation via the Cloudpaging application that is installed by AppsAnywhere the first time you use it.

On the first run, the application may run before it is entirely downloaded and may run slowly until this is completed. Once the installation process has completed the application will be cached on your PC and should start quickly each time you start it.

 

Some applications are specific to schools and, therefore, will not be available to every student.