AppsAnywhere Software Information

AppsAnywhere launched in the 2019 fall semester and is a software distribution portal, which is used on University of Regina Public Lab computers, and Smart Classrooms.

AppsAnywhere Available Locations

Follow public labs link to see locations of where available AppsAnywhere software is. Smart Classrooms, with AppsAnwhere software, are located in numerous places on campus.

From off campus, students can connect to a public lab computer remotely to access AppsAnywhere software.

AppsAnywhere Available Software

Click here for the updated list of available software provided by Appsanywhere. 

How do I Launch AppsAnywhere Applications

• Instead of launching applications from the Windows Programs menu, a web browser window will launch when you log in to a computer, which will show icons for all available software on the computer.
• You can hover over an icon, choose "Launch," and the software will stream from our AppsAnywhere servers to the local PC, and then it will be launched by a locally installed cloud player.
• If needed, there is also an icon on the desktop, should the browser window close.

Have a look at this short 33 second video on Launching an Application.

• After an application has been launched once on a system, it is cached and is "virtually" installed, so then it can be run the traditional way, from the Programs menu.
• You can easily search for an application using the search bar in the top right corner of the screen. You can use the keyboard shortcut of "s" to get to the search bar quickly.
• If you need assistance, please see the How To Search video for a 30 second demonstration of searching.

File Type Associations (.docx, .pdf, etc.)

Note: Because an application does not install until after it has been launched once on a computer, file associations for that application may not be present. If you double-click on a file and the application does not open, then you must launch the application first, and open the file from within the application.

MS Office and Adobe Reader are installed locally so file associations for .docx, .xlsx, .pdf etc. are always present.

Benefits of AppsAnywhere

AppsAnywhere streaming technology provides the following benefits to the UofR community:

• Allows deployment of new/updated software quickly across all smart classrooms and public labs without requiring reboots or down time.
• Allows software to be made more widely available when the license permits so students have more flexibility where they do assignments.
• Allows multiple versions of an application to be available (SPSS 23 and SPSS 25 for example).

Support

If you have questions about the use of the AppsAnywhere software, please contact IT Support.

Scheduled Maintenance Window

Available updates will be applied every Sunday from 4:00AM to 4:15AM. Please note that application of these updates may result in a brief outage during this time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. Where will AppsAnywhere be used?
A. Initially it will be used in all Public labs and Smart Classrooms. Use in other managed labs is being considered for the future.

Q. Is it slower to stream applications compared to locally installed applications?
A. The first time you launch software it is slower to start but because it is cached, after the first launch the application runs at a similar speed to locally installed software.

Q. Why can't I find SPSS (or another application) under the Programs Menu?
A. Until an application has been run once it isn't virtually installed on the system, so the only way to launch it is through the AppsAnywhere portal.

Q. I closed the AppsAnywhere portal browser window – how do I re-launch it?
A. Click on the Launch AppsAnywhere icon on the desktop.

Q. I inserted my USB key and double clicked on MyProjectStats.sav file, and Windows says it can't find an application to launch it. I thought SPSS was available on all lab machines?
A. It is available, but it isn't installed until the first time somebody launches it from AppsAnywhere. To open your MyProjectStats.sav file go to the AppsAnywhere browser portal window and scroll, or search for SPSS and launch it. Then open the file from within SPSS. After an application has been run once on a system, clicking on MyProjectStats.sav will launch SPSS.

Q. Why isn't AppsAnywhere available for use on every PC on campus?
A. AppsAnywhere licensing costs preclude us from offering it campus wide at this time.

Q. There are a lot of applications – how do I find my application quickly?
A. You can use the search box in the top right corner to search for an application. The keyboard shortcut, “s”, takes you directly to the search box. See the search video for a demonstration. 

Q. Can you save your work locally?
A. Yes, the application runs locally on the PC so you can save to the normal drives you use.

Q. Where are the AppsAnywhere servers located?
A. They are located on campus in UofR data centres.

Q. What happens if AppsAnywhere crashes – will my lab be ruined?
A. There are redundant load balanced servers implementing this service, so a single server crash will not affect software availability. In the extremely rare event that multiple servers are down, you wouldn't be able to launch software.
Note: MS office and Adobe reader are installed locally and would be available from the Programs menu.

Q. How does it work?
A. AppsAnywhere utilizes app streaming, with CloudPaging software, to quickly deliver applications over the network. Applications must be "cloudified" by UofR technicians before they can be delivered via streaming.

Q. I see an "Application is no longer authorized and must be re-issued. The application will be terminating" message when I try to launch an application from Cloudpaging Player, which has previously launched.
A. This message indicates that the application session has expired. To renew the session, the application has to be relaunched from the web portal. Login to https://appsanywhere.uregina.ca, select the application and click Launch.

Appsanywhere expires application sessions after 30 days of in-activity. For further information follow this link: https://docs.software2.com/s2hub/admin/latest/connectors/numecent-cloudpaging/managing-app-sessions

For more information on AppsAnywhere, check out the Software2 website:

For technical information on CloudPaging, check out the Numecent website:

https://www.numecent.com/cloudpaging/