(Interactive Access) Remote Desktop

The
Remote Desktop
 section allows to view and interact with the remote device desktop. The remote device desktop can be accessed both in read-only mode or it is possible to establish an interaction with it, if the user owns read and write rights.
NOTE: An admin user can enable or disable access from the server only. Some environments may require user approval on the local device before allowing the remote device to access the remote device desktop.
To access
Remote Desktop
, proceed as follows:
  1. Access
    FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
    .
  2. Access
    Explorer
    Domain view
    .
  3. Ensure that your device is connected to
    FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
    .
    NOTE: See (Interactive Access) Connection for further information on this subject.
  4. Click the
    Interactive Access (Web only)
     or
    Interactive Access (Tools)
     button.
  5. Select
    Remote Desktop
    .
After connecting to the
Remote Desktop
 section, you will find six icons in a toolbar above the desktop pane to manage specific tasks during your session. Each icon features a different task, such as a screen adapter, a screenshot tool, and a remote desktop input blocker, as needed. Furthermore, you can find a dropdown menu for image quality configuration. The options available may slightly differ depending on the device configuration and whether you are using the web-only or the desktop version of the
Interactive Access
 Tool.
NOTE: If you access the
Remote Desktop
 through
Interactive Access (Web only)
, the copy-and-paste function is not supported on the Firefox browser.
  • Enter full screen mode
    : It allows you to view the remote desktop in full-screen mode. To make the toolbar visible while in full-screen mode, move it to the top edge of the screen.
  • Local window view
    : It allows you to change from the
    FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
     default view to the original size of the display on the remote device. If the original display is bigger than the remote viewing area, scroll bars will be present on the remote desktop window to enable you to scroll over the entire display area.
  • Screen capture
    : It allows you to take a picture of the remote desktop screen and save the picture to an image file.
  • Lock input
    : It locks any input on the remote device. When any input on the remote device is locked, only the
    FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
     can interact with it by emulating mouse and keyboard.
    NOTE: When the
    Lock input
     feature is enabled, a message requires you to determine what action should be carried out automatically in case the connection gets lost. You can decide whether to keep the input locked or unblocking it, to allow an interaction on the remote device.
  • Ctrl-Alt-Del emulation
    : It emulates the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys combination on the remote desktop to get a list of the operations triggered by that command.
    NOTE: This feature is not supported on Ubuntu 22 devices.
  • Chat
    : It allows you to remotely communicate with the operator on site.
    NOTE: See the
    Chat
     section which follows for further information on this subject.
  • Image Quality
    : It changes the graphic quality of the remote desktop to prioritize either any data transfer speed or quality. There are three possible options:
    • High color lossless
      : 65.000 color quality without compression. This can result in a slower connection but with better image quality.
    • High color lossy
      : 65.000 color quality that uses JPG compression. It increases the speed of rendering images with many colors and shades but worsens the quality of the text and other items that change rapidly during the session.
    • Low color lossless
      : 256 color quality with compression. It increases the speed of the connection and maintains text quality, but has reduced image quality.
  • Monitor
    : If the remote device is connected to multiple screens, you can access each of them individually or choose an extended view to simultaneously display all the connected screens at once. Use the dropdown menu to select the screen to be displayed in the remote desktop session.
    The
    Monitor
     dropdown menu includes the
    Extended view
     option: It shows all the screens connected to the remote computer according to the layout assigned to them in the display settings. While using the extended view, you can interact and use the screens exactly as if you were working locally.
    NOTE: This feature is not supported on Ubuntu 22 devices.
    When you are connected in a single screen view, click the
    Monitor
     icon, to cycle from one monitor to the next one in the list.
  • Session
    : If the remote device operating system allows multiple
    Remote Desktop
     sessions, you will be asked to select the session type with which to start each remote connection.
    For example, you could log on with a user account to reproduce a user reported issue and then log on to another session as an admin user, during which you could adjust configurations to address the issue reported.
NOTE:
Remote Desktop
 allows you to share clipboard text between local and remote devices. Nevertheless, this feature is not supported on Ubuntu 22 devices.

Chat

The Chat allows to communicate through messages with the operator on site who is physically interacting with the remote device. If the
Interactive Access
 Tool that you are currently using does not feature any
Remote Desktop
 interaction service, you can use the chat if allowed by your account rights.
NOTE: The chat is available on Windows Runtime.
To open the chat:
  1. In
    FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
    , access the
    Explorer
    Domain view
     section.
  2. Click the
    Interactive Access
     Tool button.
  3. Select the
    Remote Desktop
     section.
  4. Click on the
    chat
     icon.
The Chat supports multiple RDPs with identification of the message sender. In case chat messages are sent through multiple
FactoryTalk Remote Access Managers
 connected to the same Runtime, the messages sent by the Runtime in return are going to be delivered to all the
FactoryTalk Remote Access Managers
 connected. Nevertheless, each
FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
 will not be displaying the messages sent by other
FactoryTalk Remote Access Managers
.
  • Supervisors can chat from the
    Remote Desktop
     section to multiple remote device operators.
  • Multiple supervisors can chat with the operator of the same device.
  • Chats cannot occur between remote device operators.
NOTE: Chat conversations are logged into the
Audit
Log
 section. To access a specific conversation, double-click the connection line of the concerned device.
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