Citrix and thin clients

Product overview

Sign in to Citrix as yourself, on a device that isn’t.

A worker taps their badge at a thin client or a shared PC and lands in their own Citrix session — their entitlements, their profile, their audit trail — without the endpoint ever needing to know who they are.

An IGEL thin client showing the OLOID prompt to scan a badge at the reader, with local account tiles in the corner.
01The thin client is signed in as a local account. The prompt in front of the worker is asking for a person.

Where it fits

Two routes in, one sign-in.

Some floors run thin clients. Others run full PCs that reach Citrix through the Workspace app. OLOID sits in front of both and behaves the same way, so a site does not need one process for its thin clients and another for everything else.

THIN CLIENT IGEL and similar WINDOWS ENDPOINT A PC on the floor OLOID Badge or face Identifies the person, not the device CITRIX Their own session Published apps or a published desktop
The same sign-in whether the worker is at a thin client or a full Windows PC.

Shared device, named session

The device account and the Citrix account come apart.

This is the part that usually blocks shared hardware. The endpoint is signed in as a local or shared account and stays that way — but the Citrix session that opens belongs to the individual who badged in. It works in the other direction too: a worker signed in by name at the endpoint can still be taken into a shared Citrix session where a role calls for one.

THE DEVICE Signed in as a shared or local account Left on between shifts. Nobody in particular. kiosk-04 local user THE CITRIX SESSION Opened as the individual Their entitlements, their profile, their audit trail. a.khanna Named identity from your directory
The two are decoupled, and it works the other way too — a named device sign-in can still open a shared Citrix session where a role calls for one.
The OLOID prompt reads Authentication Successful, Hello Aman Khanna, taking you to your organization account, while a local user tile sits in the corner of the thin client.
02A local account tile on the left. An organisation account being opened on the right. Both true at once.

Fast user switching

Hand the machine over without logging it out.

At a shift change the endpoint stays exactly where it is. The outgoing worker’s Citrix session disconnects rather than ending, the next worker taps their badge, and their own session connects in its place. Nobody waits on a boot, a Windows login, or a Citrix Workspace sign-in.

THE ENDPOINT Never logs out. Never reboots. Stays exactly where it is. WORKER A Session disconnects Left open, not thrown away BADGE TAP About a second WORKER B Their own session Not a continuation of A’s
Hand-over is a badge tap, so a shift change does not queue behind a login screen.

Follow-me desktop

The session moves with the worker.

A frontline worker rarely stays at one screen. Because the session belongs to the person rather than the endpoint, badging in somewhere else reconnects the session they already had — the same applications, still open, still where they were left. Walking to another room stops costing a fresh login and a re-navigation.

ONE SESSION Apps stay open Work is where they left it Thin client, ward PC, nurses’ station Thin client, theatre
The session belongs to the worker, so moving rooms does not mean starting again.

Epic on Citrix

Straight through to Epic, not just to the desktop.

Most hospitals publish Epic through Citrix rather than installing it on every endpoint. Getting a clinician to a Citrix desktop is only half the journey — they still have to find Epic and sign in to it. OLOID carries the same identity the rest of the way, so a badge tap at the thin client lands the clinician inside Epic itself.

  • Epic opens as the clinician, with the login context their role expects.
  • Tapping out ends the Epic session as well as the Citrix one, rather than leaving a chart open on a shared screen.
  • Coming back reconnects rather than restarting, so a clinician returns to the patient they were on.
A Windows desktop published through Citrix, opened from the thin client after the badge tap.
03The published session, opened from the thin client without a second sign-in.

See it running

Badge to session.

A recording from an IGEL thin client: the badge scan, the hand-off to an organisation account, and the Citrix session opening on top of it.

IGEL and Citrix login. A badge tap at the thin client, an organisation account opened on a device signed in locally, and the Citrix session arriving on top.

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At a glance

What it does.

EndpointsThin clients such as IGEL, and Windows PCs reaching Citrix through the Workspace app.
Sign-inThe worker’s badge or face at the endpoint, in about a second.
Device accountIndependent of the session. A shared or local device account can carry a named Citrix session, and the reverse.
Session typePublished applications or a published desktop.
Hand-overFast user switching — the outgoing session disconnects and the next worker’s connects, with the endpoint left up.
RoamingFollow-me desktop — badging in elsewhere reconnects the same session rather than starting a new one.
ApplicationsIncluding Epic published through Citrix, entered directly rather than via the desktop.
RelatedWindows Login and Windows Launcher for endpoints that keep a local desktop.