About the Connect desktop app

The Pexip Connect desktop app is a stand-alone video client that provides access to Pexip Infinity services. It is currently supported on:

  • Microsoft Windows 10
  • macOS 10.11 and later
  • Ubuntu Linux 16.04 and later
  • Citrix virtual desktops
  • Citrix virtual apps

Note that 32-bit operating systems are not supported with the Connect desktop app.

We recommend that you use the latest available version. "Legacy" Connect desktop app versions, i.e. those released in 2018 or earlier, are no longer supported and are not compatible with Pexip Infinity v29 and later.

Hardware requirements

The performance of the Connect desktop app can depend upon which other applications are currently running on the client system.

However, as a minimum we recommend that your client system has:

  • 4 GB of RAM
  • Intel Core i5 processor or equivalent

Installing the Connect desktop app

No special privileges are required to install the Connect desktop app, as it is installed in a per-user context.

To install the Connect desktop app, go to the Pexip App download page and download and install the appropriate file for your operating system as described below.

Note that 32-bit operating systems are not supported with the Connect desktop app.

Windows

(Supported on Windows 10.)

Download the pexip-infinity-connect_<release>_win-x64.msi file for Windows.

Double-click on the .msi file to install the Connect desktop app and then follow the instructions in the installation wizard. During the installation process the Connect app icon is added to the desktop, and entries are added to the Windows registry to allow links prefixed with pexip: and pexip-provision: to open automatically in the Connect desktop app.

macOS

(Supported on macOS 10.11 and later.)

Download the pexip-infinity-connect_<release>_darwin-x64.dmg file for macOS.

To install the macOS client, open this file and drag the Pexip Infinity Connect.app into the Applications folder.

Linux

Download the pexip-infinity-connect_<release>_linux-x64.tgz file for Linux.

To install the Linux client:

  1. Create a new directory. For example, to install the client for a single user "alice":

    mkdir /home/alice/pexapp

    cd /home/alice/pexapp

  2. Download the Connect desktop app tgz file to that directory and extract the archive. For example:

    tar -xzf pexip-infinity-connect_<release>_linux-x64.tgz

  3. Copy the .desktop file to the appropriate location for making the application available for this user as per freedesktop.org-compliant desktop guidelines (see https://developer.gnome.org/integration-guide/stable/desktop-files.html.en for more information). For example:

    cp pexip-infinity-connect_linux-x64/pexip-infinity-connect.desktop /home/alice/.local/share/applications/pexip-infinity-connect.desktop

  4. Using your preferred text editor, modify the Exec line to point to the location of the pexip-infinity-connect binary on your system. For example:

    emacs /home/alice/.local/share/applications/pexip-infinity-connect.desktop

    and make it look something like this:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Pexip Infinity Connect
    Exec=/home/alice/pexapp/pexip-infinity-connect_linux-x64/pexip-infinity-connect
    Terminal=false
    Type=Application
    Icon=application-x-executable

Note that if you want to install the application for all users (rather than just a single user), follow the same instructions but instead copy the .desktop file into the /usr/share/applications directory (you may need root privileges to do this).

Virtual environments

We do not recommend installing Connect desktop app on a virtual environment (Windows or Linux) other than Citrix. In all cases when running in a virtual environment, you must disable hardware acceleration using either of the following methods:

  • Set the ELECTRON_DISABLE_HARDWARE_ACCEL user environment variable to 1 before launching the Connect desktop app. For example, using the command prompt:

    set ELECTRON_DISABLE_HARDWARE_ACCEL 1

    Note that this is a one-time action.

  • Launch the Connect desktop app with the command line switch --disable-gpu. For example:

    C:\Users\alice\AppData\Local\Apps\Pexip-Infinity-Connect\pexip-infinity-connect.exe --citrix --disable-gpu

    If you use this method, you must use it every time you launch the app. You may wish to create a shortcut that launches the Connect desktop app using the --disable-gpu switch, which you can then use every time you launch the app.

Citrix

Users can securely access the Connect desktop app via Citrix Virtual Desktops or via Citrix Virtual Apps using the Citrix Workspace app to join VMRs, call through the Pexip Gateway to Microsoft Teams, or simply place point-to-point calls.

See Deploying the Connect desktop app under Citrix for more information on how to install the Connect desktop app in a Citrix environment.

Registering the Connect desktop app

After the Connect desktop app has been installed, it can be registered to a Conferencing Node. The administrator can also provision individual users with their registration details and automatically apply those registration settings to their Connect desktop app.

See Registering and provisioning the Connect desktop app for more information.

Accessing a conference or making a call

When users open the Connect desktop app, they are presented with the home screen, from where they can check their setup and then select Call to enter the alias of the conference or person they want to call (for example meet.alice@vc.example.com).

System administrators and conference organizers can also provide a preconfigured link to a meeting, with one or more options (such as the meeting name) already configured.