Saving Your Work

Saving Your Work

It's very important while you're working in the Tufts Virtual Lab (VDI) to save your files to either Box or to your actual computer. Any files you haven't saved outside of the Virtual Lab will be lost when you close the Virtual Lab.

While you're working in VDI, you can certainly save files to the Virtual Lab desktop. It's a regular Windows computer for you to use! However, when you're finished working or you're going to step away from the computer, you'll need to take everything you worked on and save it either in Box or to your actual computer (see Sharing Files & Folders Between Your Device and VDI)

While you're working on the in Tufts Virtual Lab, feel free to save files to the desktop. However, files cannot be stored in the Tufts Virtual Lab between sessions.

Using the Tufts Virtual Lab is like temporarily borrowing a loaner Windows laptop from TTS. Imagine that in TAB there is a stack of 100 Windows laptops available to lend out:

  1. When you open Tufts Virtual Lab (either through a browser on vdi.it.tufts.edu or through the VMWare Horizon app on your computer): A member of TTS staff hands you a brand new Windows loaner laptop to use.
  2. When you quit Tufts Virtual Lab (either by closing the browser or quitting the VMWare Horizon app): You walk back to TAB and give the Windows loaner laptop you were using back to a TTS employee.
  3. The next time you open Tufts Virtual Lab: A member of TTS staff hands you another brand new Windows loaner laptop to borrow. It won't be the same loaner laptop you borrowed before; it will just whichever loaner laptop was next in the stack of loaner laptops that are available to borrow.

The Tufts Virtual Lab is exactly this - when you open the Tufts Virtual Lab, you are given a fresh Windows desktop to work on. You can save files temporarily on the Virtual Lab desktop, but when you close the Virtual Lab desktop, files saved only in the Virtual Lab desktop will be lost. Each time you open the Tufts Virtual Lab, you are given a fresh Windows desktop.

Whether you are using VMWare Horizon as the desktop app or through the browser, a great option for saving your files is to save them in Box.

You can use the Box Drive application or the Tufts Box website at tufts.box.com. Either will work - it's your preference.

Using tufts.box.com

To use tufts.box.com, in the virtual desktop, open a browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Edge). Head to tufts.box.com . This is a normal connection to Box - sign in with your Tufts credentials to get to your Box account, then upload any files you'd like to save into Box. For help using Box, see the Box online guide.

Using the Box Drive Application

Log in to Box Drive on the virtual desktop.

A Box Drive log in window will appear after you sign into the virtual desktop, but if you have already closed this window, use the Search in the bottom left of the virtual desktop toolbar for "Box Drive" to open it). Sign in with your Tufts credentials.
Box Drive login screen first prompts for username
 

Once logged in, you can access your Box files by opening the virtual desktop’s file manager.

  1. Click on the File Explorer icon in the bottom taskbar.
    file manager is a folder icon
  2. Click on the Box folder location in the left-hand menu.
    Box will be an option in the sidebar
  3. From here, you can access and work with all of the files you have stored in Box.