Access to file servers via Citrix (N/A)

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Not the real board for this question, but does anybody know if the following is possible?
I have remote users (in Dublin and Sydney) who are able to run Excel via Citrix. The Citrix server is in a data center here in the US, where there are also some file servers. The users need to access Excel files on the file servers, and right now they run Excel locally and use the corporate network to access the files. However, opening the files is very slow, and I’m wondering if they could access the files from Excel running on the Citrix server. Assume that permissions aren’t an issue.
TIA

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Yep, we do it that way. It may depend in part on your setup. I some cases, we want to control the file, in which case the icon they have available to open the file, opens one file on citrix. When they close the file, they disconnect from Citrix. We also are set up to open a full scale Windows session in Citrix. It works as if they have local Windows. One also can have Citrix open to one application. While in that application, they can do anything as though the app was installed on the desktop. However, they cannot switch apps (in Citrix, they can still switch on the local desktop) because IT choose to publish it that way. One can also copy data from a Citrix session and paste to the Citrix Session. I am not sure about interacting programtically between two Citrix sessions or Citrix and Window. I have not tried that. Yes, you can have two Citrix sessions open and copy data between them. Basically Citrix is just another layer to deal with.

I hope this is helpful

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Cecil,
Belated thanks – that was very helpful. One other question: there are various “customization” files involved in running Excel, such as a Excel11.xlb, Personal.xls, and Excel add-in files. What’s the story with them when Excel is running within Citrix? Is everybody running the same vanilla Excel, or can users’ files be stored locally (or on the Citrix server)?

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My understanding (which may be wrong) is that each user has their own account on the Citrix server, and can store their personal.xls and similar files there.

I suppose it’s possible though that you could set the Citrix version of Excel up to look at locally stored “customisation” files – that way they could use the same files that they use when they run Excel locally, avoiding duplication of the files and meaning that any changes made will affect both their Citrix and their local use. This might have a detrimental effect on the running speed of Excel across Citrix though.

This could work even if my understanding in paragraph 1 is false. If everyone is accessing the same instance of Excel, the pointer to the personal macros workbook etc. could still be set to a destination on a local drive. You’d then have to make sure that all your remote users stored their personal.xls in the same destination folder . Then it should work like a relative hyperlink, picking up the current user’s individual personal.xls workbook from their own machine.

Sorry if this is a bit garbled – let me know if I need to give a better explanation. I’m sure it can work!

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Either way. In our case, the purpose of using Citrix is to provide a controlled environment. We have a hand full of spreadsheets that we need to ensure the user is entering data on the controlled copy. We also need to ensure the supporting DLL’s are available. Everyone sees the exact same thing. There is one set of supporting files. We publish the spreadsheet as the application. However, you can use Citrix with profiles, just the same as the local desktop. You have full control.

We have had a problem with people making copies of spreadsheets and entering data in the copy. There is now a macro which checks its filename and path info. They cannot use this spreadsheet with macros disabled, because some of the data is automajically colleceted from other sources. We found Citrix to be an additional help in controlling this. The way I read your post, you want people to have access as though it was their own desktop, but provide them with more speed. Citrix works fine for this as well.

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