Logging Off vs Disconnecting from the Hosted Desktop

Logging off/Signing out means fully logging off of Citrix and signing out of your profile. This closes all open applications and closes your session requiring a fresh login next time you connect. It is recommended to logoff daily or at least weekly to ensure your desktop experience runs smoothly. Note that we have an enforced daily logoff policy of 3 hours if a session remains idle.

Disconnecting by hitting “X” in the top right of the screen or selecting “Disconnect” from the connection bar will leave your session as is on the server with applications remaining open. This is a good method to use if you plan on reconnecting to your same session within 12 hours. This disconnected state does not save your documents so be sure to save any work before disconnecting. When you reconnect to your disconnected session it should login right as you left it with the running applications. 

Rebooting your local computer does not properly log you out of the Citrix desktop, it will only disconnect your session.

How to Log Off/Sign Out of the Citrix desktop

There are a few methods available for logging off/signing out of your Citrix Desktop.

Method 1

Expand the black bar at the top of your Citrix desktop screen and select CTL+ALT+DEL then “Sign out”

Method 2

Go to your Start Menu in the bottom left of your screen, click on your account icon, and click on “Sign out”

Method 3

Right-click on the Start Menu in the bottom right hand corner. Hover over Shut down or sign out and choose "Sign out". Note you can also disconnect from this menu.

The Connection Bar: Inside Citrix vs. Outside Citrix

The black bar at the top of the screen indicates that you are inside the Citrix desktop

When you click on the black bar, it expands and gives you a few options.

• Home = takes you out of the the Citrix desktop Screen and to your local computer
• CTL+ALT+DEL = Change your Citrix desktop Password
• Window = This will take the Citrix desktop window to full screen or out of full screen viewing
• Disconnect = This will disconnect your session inside the Citrix desktop. You can come back later or log in to another computer and pick up exactly where you left off in the the Citrix desktop session. This is like turning off your monitor and leaving everything running.

The Connection Bar is a feature of the Citrix desktop client on your local computer that lets you move back and forth between the Citrix desktop and your local desktop environment. You can also use this to change from a full screen to a windowed view of the Citrix desktop, or Disconnecting.

If you have a need to change to another computer, or don’t want to close out your programs, you can disconnect from your session. When you log back in, all the same windows, screens, files, and programs that you were working on previously will still be available. To disconnect, click on the black and white bar at the top of the screen to pull up the Connection Bar and then click on Disconnect. Disconnecting is like turning off your monitor at the end of the day.