Bingview Virtual Desktop Overview

BINGVIEW, the campus virtual desktop initiative, was started in 2008 as a pilot project with initial financial support coming from ITS and the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. The initial purpose was to provide remote access to University licensed applications.

The hardware has been configured to support 300 concurrent users with the ability to easily expand the environment to 500 concurrent users.

Virtual Desktop at Binghamton University is accessed via the link https://bingview.binghamton.edu. It provides on-campus and off-campus access to statistical, math and engineering packages such as Matlab, SPSS, STATA, SAS, Atlas.Ti, NVivo, Creo, and Microsoft Office, among others.

VDI allows ITS to deliver desktops on demand to users anywhere and to any device. The desktop is delivered in real time to the user's PC, Mac or tablet device.

Virtual Desktop FAQ

Q: Who can access the Virtual Desktop?

A: Active students, faculty and staff can access the Virtual Desktop using their BU account.

Q: What is Virtual Desktop?

A: Virtual Desktop separates the physical machine from the PC desktop environment using a client/server model of computing. It allows ITS to deliver desktops on demand to users anywhere and to any device. The desktop is delivered in real time to the user's PC or tablet device.

The Virtual Desktop at Binghamton University provides access to engineering, statistical and specialty software packages including Matlab, SPSS, STATA, SAS, Atlas.Ti, NVivo, Creo, and Microsoft Office, among others.

Q. How do I log into a Virtual Desktop?

A: To access BingView go to bingview.binghamton.edu. Students and off-campus users are required to connect to VPN before using BingView. Click here for more info.

Connecting via the VMware Horizon View Client

1. From your system, open a web browser and connect to BingView's web page. Select the option "Install VMware Horizon View Client".

2. From the download page, select and download the VMware View Client appropriate for your system. Clients are available for the following operating systems:

a. Windows 10, 32 and 64 bit
b. Mac
c. iOS
d. Android
e. Linux users should check their OS distribution repository for a client

3. Download the latest version of the VMware Horizon View Client appropriate for your system.

4. Start the application that was just downloaded to begin the installation procedure.

5. Accept the default settings, and when prompted for the connection server enter: BingView.binghamton.edu

6. Depending on your operating system, you may be prompted to restart. Do so before proceeding.

7. Start the VMware Horizon Client, login with your username and password and select the appropriate domain.

8. Select a virtual desktop from the list.

Connecting via a HTML5 Web browser

1. The following web browsers are supported:

a. Chrome
b. Internet Explorer 11 or later
c. Safari 9,10
d. Mobile Safari on iOS devices running iOS 6 9 or 10
e. Firefox

NOTE: This method does not allow access to local computer drive (storage).

2. From your system, open a supported web browser

3. Connect to BingView's web page. (https://BingView.binghamton.edu).

4. Select the option "VMware Horizon View HTML Access"

5. Login with your username and password and select the appropriate domain

6. Select a virtual desktop from the list.

Note: Not all of the virtual machine pools are available via the web interface.

Q: Can I incorporate Virtual Desktop as part of my classroom instruction? How many virtual machines are available at a given time?

A: Yes, professors have incorporated Virtual Desktop as part of their research methods/statistics classes.

Systems are built dynamically as users log in, please contact the Help Desk if you are planning to use the virtual environment in a classroom setting. The systems can be pre-built prior to class reducing the time to login.

Q: What computer system or platform do I need to access Virtual Desktop?

A: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android or Linux computer can all access Virtual Desktops.

Q: Who can access Virtual Desktop?

A: All current faculty, staff, and registered students, both undergraduate/graduate, can access Virtual Desktop using their BU username/password combination. 

Q: Can I store data or files on Virtual Desktop?

A: Once you log-in using your BU username/password combination, you would have access to your own C, U-Drive or S drive on the server. These drives would be pre-fixed with your username and easily identifiable. All other drives without prefix of your username are virtual drives and nothing should be saved there as the system is deleted upon logoff. Google Drive can also be used to store your files - students, faculty, and staff have access to data storage. You can also use a USB flash drive to save your data (not for web access).

Q: Can I print my output or results from the Virtual Desktop?

A: Printing can be done utilizing Print@Binghamton. If you want to print to a printer other than a Print@Binghamton printer, you will need to save your output and then print it to your printer.

Q: What are the system requirements for Virtual Desktop?

A: The VMware Horizon View Clients are supported on the following Window operating systems:

  • Windows 10, 32 or 64-bit

Mac Client requirements:

  • 64 Bit Intel-based Mac
  • At least 2GB of RAM
  • Max OS X Mavericks (10.9) or newer

IOS:

  • iOS 9 or later

Androids

  • ARM and x86
  • Android 2.3.3, 3, 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4

For HTML5 web access the following web browsers are supported:

  • Chrome 
  • Internet Explorer 11 
  • Safari 
  • Mobile Safari on iOS devices running iOS 9
  • Firefox

Q: Is there a time limit associated with the Virtual Desktop?

A: Sessions are currently limited to 24 hrs. Also, if the session disconnects abnormally, reconnecting will take you back to the interrupted session without loss of work as long as the reconnection takes place in less than 5 minutes. BUT save, save, save to your Google Drive or U-Drive.

Q: What happens to the contents of my desktop when I log off or disconnect?

A: These desktops are stateless. DO NOT save anything to the desktop. Anything saved to the desktop will be destroyed.

Q: What if I am using a Mac?

A: Mac users can download and install the Horizon View Client or use Safari 6 or later to connect to a virtual system. Click here for more information about using a Mac to connect to the bingview virtual desktops.

Trouble Accessing BingView

If you are having trouble accessing BingView, please attempt the troubleshooting steps below to see if your experience improves: We strongly recommend using the latest version of the Horizon View Client instead of a web-browser when accessing BingView....read more.