One of the major features of the virtual desktop is the ability to get to and work with your files regardless of what machine you're using to get to the virtual desktop. Being able to do that requires that your files be stored in a location you can always get to. That storage location will most likely be either your network "home" directory or a group shared area.

We understand there are times when you may want or need to work with files on the local PC hard drive. For instance, you may receive an e-mail attachment that you need to store on the local drive. Or you may have started working on a file at home and now want to move it your Emory Healthcare "home" directory.

We'll show you here how to copy/move files between your Emory Healthcare network drives (home directory or group shared area) and your local PC hard drive (your C: drive).

Note: Certain information, such as ePHI, should not be copied to the local drive on a non-Emory Healthcare personal computer. For more information, see the HIPAA Remote Access Policy.

When you are in an application and want to open a file (or save one), click the to see the drop-down list of potentially available locations.

Note: the locations you see will be different from the ones shown here. The list of locations you see depends on what groups your ID is in. What you see here is an example, not the exact representation of what you'll see.

The "Desktop" listed here is not your PC's desktop - it is the virtual desktop's desktop. Don't save files here. Similarly, the "Local Disk (C:)" listed here is not your PC's C: drive - it is the virtual desktop server's C: drive. You cannot save files here.

The D:, E: and O: drives here are also virtual desktop server drives that you can't save to but are there so you can run applications in the virtual desktop environment.

So there may be some drives that you can see, but can't save files to. Here's the list of places where you CAN save files:

The "Groups" and "home" are Emory Healthcare network file share directories to which you've been granted access. "Home" is for your use only. "Groups" is where group shared areas can be found, such as a directory shared by everyone in your department. Saving a file to either of these locations will ensure the file is available to you from any PC from which you might access your virtual desktop.

The C$ and D$ drives are the local PC's drives. (Your PC may not have a D: drive, so you may not see D$). Notice the Q: in parentheses after C$ - the local PC's C: drive is known as the Q: drive in this virtual desktop environment.

You'll see two folders on your virtual desktop:

The "My Documents" folder provides access to EHC network file share areas such as your home directory and other group shared directories.

The "Local Drive Access" folder provides access to the C: drive on the PC you are using.

You will need to open each of these two folders to copy or move a file between these two storage locations.

When you click on the "My Documents" folder to open it, you will notice it contains a "home" folder, a "Drivemappings" folder and possibly a GWarchive folder.

The "home" folder is the network file storage area assigned specifically to your loginID for your use.

The "Drivemappings" folder will provide access to any group shared area to which you've been granted access.

The Gwarchive folder, if it exists, is your GroupWise archive. Don't delete or move any of these files -- you will corrupt your archive.

When you click on the "Local Drive Access" folder, you'll probably see a window encouraging you to migrate information to your home share. Click OK to close that window.

Another window will then appear - showing the folders on the local PC's C:\ drive.

You'll notice that the drive letter that appears in the address window is not C: - in this case it is Q:. That's because we're in the virtual desktop environment, which has its own C: drive. So the local PC C: drive has to be assigned a different letter. In this case, Q:

Once you have each of the two windows open, you'll need to position them on the screen so you can see both at the same time.

Also, you'll need to navigate to the folder that contains the file(s) you want to copy/move AND navigate to the folder into which you want to copy/move those file(s).

With both windows visible on the screen and displaying the locations where you have the file now and where you want the file to be, you may "drag and drop" the file from one window into the other.