Some of the software used in our various engineering curricula cannot be installed directly on student-owned computers because of prohibitive cost or restrictions in licensing agreements. However, the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL), a service developed in the College of Engineering, allows students, faculty, and staff to access these programs remotely using their own computers.
Briefly, the way it works is that you go to the VCL website and create a reservation based on the software you want to use. VCL begins loading a clean, new installation on a remote server. When your reservation is ready (usually a matter of a few minutes, but often instantly), you receive an email saying that your reservation is ready. Then you can connect to the remote computer and use it as though you were sitting in front of it.
When connected to VCL, you are the only person using that remote computer, so you do not need to worry about processor load.
For more, see the VCL web site.
Opening an RDP File
An RDP file is a settings file that can be opened by the Remote Desktop Client to automatically open a connection to the reserved computer. The RDP file can be used to automatically log you in to the remote machine, provided your browser and operating system properly support the auto login feature.
To open an RDP file:
Windows
Double-click the downloaded RDP file to open it with Remote Desktop Connection, which is included with Windows.
macOS
You will need to install third-party software in order to open the RDP file. Our current recommendation is Microsoft Remote Desktop. Once installed, RDP files should automatically open with Microsoft Remote Desktop. If not, launch Microsoft Remote Desktop and go to Connections > Import Desktops… and Import your RDP file.