Please try the following:
- Close all Athena apps.
- In Athena go to Apps > Categories > Tools.
- Open Default profile.
- When the app has loaded, click OK.
- Wait until you get a message that the tool has finished.
- Check if this has solved the issue you were having problems with before.

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On Athena, anyone with a Ghent University account (both staff and students) has access to a wide range of applications. You can launch all these applications online, without having to install them on your professional or personal device first. Athena uses Citrix technology for this.

To use all the applications available on Athena, you first need to install the Citrix Workspace application on your device. Please do not fill in anything when you are asked to add an account. Just click on the cross on the right. Then go to https://athena.ugent.be to start an application from Athena.

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If you receive the error message below when starting an app in Athena, first check whether the Windows updates have been installed.

• Not yet? Install all Windows updates.
• Already up to date? Download and install the certificate via https://repo.harica.gr/certs/HaricaRootCA2015.crt or https://crt.harica.gr/HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.cer.

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If you encounter the error message below when trying to open Athena,



or 


you are likely using an older version of the Citrix software. You can update it by following this procedure: https://helpdesk.ugent.be/athena/ica.php.

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If you don't see your local C drive in Athena,

right-click on the Citrix icon in the lower right corner.



open the advanced preferences



Choose "Reset Citrix Workspace."



During the next Citrix startup, you will be asked if it can access your local files. Check the box to remember this setting and always allow full access.

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Update the Citrix Workspace application

1. Right-click on the Citrix icon.
2. Select Check for updates.
3. Update the software.

Link the .ica files to the Citrix Workspace application

1. Go to Athena and try to open an app.
2. Choose 'Save.'
3. Go to your Downloads folder.
4. Right-click on the .ica file and select 'Open with' > 'Choose another app.'
5. Check 'Always use this app to open .ica files.'
6. Scroll down and choose 'More apps.'
7. Select 'Citrix Workspace' if it appears in the list.

If Citrix Workspace is not in the list, then:

1. scroll down
2. click 'Look for another app on this PC'
3. navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\ICA Client
4. select wfcrun32.exe or wfcrun32
5. click 'Open'
6. restart your browser.

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If you receive the following error message in Athena, you must open the .ica files with Citrix Connection Manager.

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If you are having problems with a session in Athena from a certain application, you can close it as follows

On Windows machines:

Locate the Citrix icon in your system tray (found near the date and time on your display).




Right-click the icon and select Connection Center



Single click to highlight the application server name next to the folder icon under the Active heading
Click the Log Off button
Follow the prompts to force log off the session




On Mac machines: (not tested because no Mac)

Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder
Highlight the Citrix application icon
Click the Quit Process button (red or gray stop sign)
Switch to another application, such as Finder, then from the Apple logo icon, select Force Quit and select the Citrix application

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1. Go to 'Apps'.
2. Select the option 'Details' of an application.
3. Select 'Add to favorites'.
   • Select 'Delete' if you want to remove the application from your favourites.

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Applications launched via Athena are opened on a server. To limit the load on our servers, sessions that have been inactive for 2 hours are automatically closed.

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Employees and students can find general information about this software platform on Athena (ICT Helpdesk website).

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The range of software available on Athena will be further reduced. In August 2027, we will permanently shut down this software platform.

Athena uses Citrix technology to provide access to the software range, but this technology is outdated and expensive to maintain. We will continue to offer applications that are still widely used on Athena via an alternative platform (Business Portal or Academic Software), but open-source software and freeware will no longer be offered via a Ghent University platform.

Important for lecturers

Please inform your OC chair about the use of software in your teaching (lessons and/or assessments) and indicate this correctly on your course description under ‘study materials’. This will ensure that the management and funding policy for educational software can be applied.

Office 365 is already available to staff and students.

Overview of applications to be removed from Athena from September 2026

The list below contains all applications that will no longer be available on Athena from September 2026, with the proposed alternative where applicable.

Applications currently available on Athena but not included in the list below (e.g. SAP) will remain available on Athena until the end of August 2027.

Being removed from Athena  (sep 2026)	Company Portal (Staff only)	Academic Software	Open-source / Freeware	End of license
Office 2024	X
ACDLabs Spectrus Processor		X
Adobe Reader	X	X
Anibio		X
Ansys Fluent		X
Ansys Lumerical		X
AntConc			X
AnyDesk	X
Aspen Suite		X
BioEdit 7			X
BioNumerics	X			X
ChemSketch		X
Chrome (Google) (browser)	X		X
CytExpert		X
Delftship		X
DEV-C++			X
Duden
EES		X
EndNote	X	X
Eviews 9				X
Fiji			X
File Explorer
FileMaker	X
flexAnalysis (Bruker)
Foxit PDF Editor		X
GeoGebra 6			X
Gephi			X
Gimp	X		X
GISMO	X	X
GMSafir
Gnuplot			X
GPower			X
Granta Edupack		X
Gretl			X
HecRas			X
Hydrus 1D			X
ImageJ			X
Inkscape			X
IrfanView	X		X
Jupyter Notebook			X
Kinovea			X
Labarchives
LDAP Browser			X
Lightburn		X
Loonbrieven	X
Maple	X	X
MBT Compass Explorer (Bruker)
Mega			X
Microsoft Edge (browser)	X		X
MLwiN		X
MySQL Workbench			X
NavCad (HydroComp)		X
Notepad ++	X		X
Oasis	X	X
Octopus Office		X
Paint dot Net			X
Power BI Desktop		X
Primer 6				X
PropCad (HydroComp)		X
PuTTY SSH	X		X
PyCharm Community	X		X
Python 3	X		X
QGIS			X
QuestaSim			X
R 4_3_1	X		X
ReCreateX	X
Refinitiv Workspace	X	X
Review Manager			X
@Risk		X
RStudio R 4_3_1	X		X
Safir
SAM		X
SDL Suite		X
SGeMS			X
Siemens NX	X	X
Sigmaplot		X
SimaPro		X
SOAP UI			X
SoilView Analysis			X
Spede			X
SPSS SamplePower				X
SPSS Statistics	X	X
Spyder Python 3			X
SQL Developer			X
Stata		X
Strurel Comrel		X
Surfer 13
TexStudio	X		X
Tina-TI			X
Trisco 2D		X
Visual 3D
Vortex			X
Weka			X
WinSCP	X		X
WUFI 5		X
XMind			X

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