Enabling Shared Kiosk Workstations in Computer Policies

Shared kiosk workstation environments host an Imprivata shared kiosk agent that is shared by multiple users, one at a time. Shared kiosk workstations are often used for hospital workstations in which physicians with individual credentials use several shared kiosk computers during a shift. In most cases, the user saves and exits work on one shared kiosk workstation before starting to work on another shared kiosk workstation.

Shared kiosk workstations are an excellent solution for some workplace needs, but they are not the right solution for all shared computers:

  • Designed for kiosk workstations that already use generic Windows logins.

  • Used for applications that run "hot" – where the user is logged off of the application but the application is left open for the next user.

  • Users do not have to go through Windows logon process to access the applications.

  • Supports lower-powered workstations that do not have a lot of memory.

  • Users share the same generic desktop, so drive mappings, shortcuts, and so forth are not personalized for each user.

NOTE:Imprivata Confirm ID does not support Citrix Fast User Switching.

Kiosks on which users access Citrix or terminal server hosted applications can support Citrix fast user switching if the terminal server is also configured to support it. This must be configured both in the computer policy assigned to the kiosk and in the computer policy assigned to the Citrix server.

Select Allow Fast User Switching with Citrix or Terminal Servers in the Kiosk Workstations section of the Shared Workstation tab of the computer policy. For more details, see Configuring Imprivata OneSign for Citrix XenApp Fast User Switching on Linux Thin Clients

You can automatically shut down and restart Citrix sessions when changing users on a workstation computer. To do so, select Automatically shut down Citrix clients when switching users on this workstation? in the Kiosk Workstations section of the Shared Workstation tab. Consider the following:

  • This setting only applies to Citrix resources that have been manually launched. Auto-launched resources are not supported.

  • The Imprivata agent must be installed on the endpoint computer.

  • Closing Citrix sessions using this setting is incompatible with Fast User Switching on kiosk computers.

When changing users on a workstation computer, you can require the new user to authenticate to Windows, or you can skip Windows authentication. This is valuable if the computer is not in a trusted domain and may fail the Windows authentication.

The following settings are available in the Windows Authentication section of the Shared Workstation tab:

  • Authenticate using Windows

  • Authenticate using OneSign

These settings are relevant only for Microsoft Windows users; they allow detection of Microsoft Active Directory-specific logon and workstation restrictions for fingerprint, ID token, or proximity card users.