We’re excited to introduce Slides, a new synchronized presentation experience built into Heropa’s Follow Host and integrated comms. Slides makes it easy for hosts to present supporting documentation, walkthroughs, and diagrams directly inside the workspace - so students stay focused and engaged without switching tools.

With Slides, hosts can guide the class through a PDF-based presentation, keep everyone perfectly in sync, and let students revisit slides at their own pace when the session ends.

Present with confidence

Slides lets you upload a PDF presentation (up to 20MB) directly in the Event configuration tab. Heropa automatically processes the file into optimized images for fast loading inside every workspace. Once uploaded, the presentation can be reused across events.

Before presenting, hosts upload their PDF and add presenter notes to each slide during the import process. During the event, they can view their notes alongside a next slide preview and use a built-in presentation timer to stay on track. This gives hosts a smoother, more polished teaching experience without juggling multiple windows.

Keep every student in sync

During the event, once the host is presenting, hosts can click Slides in the top navigation to start showing their slides. Students see the slides through the Host screen view, and as the host moves between slides, everyone automatically follows.

If the host enables Force follow, students are fully synchronized and cannot navigate independently - ideal for keeping the class aligned during key explanations. When Force follow is disabled, or the host stops presenting, students regain control and can move through the slide presentation on their own.

If the host exits the presentation entirely, students are taken straight back to their VM view.

Integrated with Follow Host

Slides works seamlessly with Heropa’s existing Follow Host capabilities. Hosts can switch between slides and live demonstrations in their VM with a single click. Students see every transition instantly, creating a smooth flow between explanation and hands-on practice.

Try it out

Slides is currently available behind a feature toggle. To enable it for your tenancy, reach out to Heropa Support.

For more information, see our support article: Presenting slides in events. 

Lots of great things in this release! We introduce several new capabilities, improves classroom usability, and resolves some key bugs.

✨ New features

• Open Workspace VMs in a new browser window - You can now pop out workspace VMs into a dedicated window for a focused workspace. The new window includes only the VM view and simple controls to close the window or return to the main workspace. The window automatically closes if the VM stops or leaves the running state. A preloader now appears in the workspace when a VM is selected. For more information see the announcement here.
• Slides for events - Hosts can present slide decks directly inside the classroom. Participants follow the host’s progression while still having the freedom to explore slides independently. For more information see the announcement here.

🌱 Enhancements

• Event classroom new layout - A refreshed classroom experience is now available behind a feature toggle. The updated UI removes the old top and bottom sections, adds a rounded mirroring area, introduces clearer VM power-state indicators, and improves visual cues for direct RDP, live view, and screenshot modes. Tile hover actions are simplified with clearer options for assistance requests, joining the workspace, and more.
• Environment list views - A new Public IP column displays the Public IP of the first visible and pinned VM in each environment, making it easier to locate and manage access details.
• Course deletion - When deleting a course that has an environment pool and where pool enrollments are the only ones linked to the course, the updated modal now resets the environment pool to zero before deleting enrollments and removing the course. This prevents admins from having to manually set environment pools to 0, and ensures a smoother cleanup flow.
• Credential properties dynamically embedded in content - Lab content now supports shortcodes that dynamically display credential values such as username, password, email, or custom fields. This removes the need for students to switch between lab content and the Credentials tab during exercises.
• Support for reusing LTI launch links across LMS courses and modules - A new configuration option allows LTI launches that differ only by module parameter to reuse the same enrollment. This enables embedding the same Heropa course/event across multiple LMS modules without generating duplicate environments.
• Shared templates - Shared templates can now be hidden using a new Hide template row action. Hidden templates appear with a new “Hidden” status and gray status color, and are hidden by default.

🔧 Fixes

• Visiting /login no longer logs the user out - The prior fix was rolled back due to an edge case that caused redirect loops. The underlying issue has now been fully resolved.
• Active user detection bug - Environments that are active and in use will no longer be incorrectly shut down when “Stop VMs after student inactivity” is enabled. A condition that incorrectly marked active environments as idle has been fixed.

Thanks as always for your continued support and feedback to help us improve Heropa. 

You can now open any VM from your workspace in a separate browser window, giving you more space, flexibility, and control over how you work. This makes it easier to follow instructions, view host presentations, or use multiple monitors without constantly switching tabs.

A more flexible way to work

This new feature lets you take any running VM and pop it out of the main workspace. Students can follow along with a host’s screen while keeping their own VM visible. Instructors and admins can use it to multitask across environments more effectively. It works everywhere: course enrollments, standalone environments, and event seats.

How it works

From the workspace, Click on the VM’s gear icon in the top navigation, select Open VM in new window.

A new browser window opens with a fully functional VM session. You can place it side by side with the main workspace or on a second monitor. Each VM in an environment can be opened into its own window. The host screen and follow-host options stay in the main workspace, so students can keep the host visible while interacting with their VM in another window.

When you’re done, you can return the VM to the main workspace in two ways:

• Open here (found in the main workspace window): Closes the pop-out and restores the VM to the workspace
• Close (found in the top bar of the pop-out workspace): Closes the pop-out and reopens the VM automatically in its original location

If the VM shuts down, reboots, or loses its browser RDP or SSH connection, the pop-out window closes automatically.

Wrap-up

Opening VMs in a new window makes hands-on work simpler and more efficient, especially when following a presentation or working with complex instructions. To reduce confusion for students, this feature is off by default. If your company would like to enable it, reach out to Heropa Support.

For more information, see our support article: Opening workspace VMs in a new browser window. 

This release focuses on improving platform stability and performance, with several key fixes and refinements across the admin and workspace experiences.

🌱 Enhancements

• Company default settings for event shared drives – When the shared drive setting is enabled but no name is provided, a unique shared drive is now automatically created for each event under an events/ folder, using the event code as the drive name.
• Performance improvements – General optimizations across workspace and admin views to keep everything running smoothly.

🔧 Fixes

• Templates tab – Fixed an issue where the Templates tab under VM Images did not display associated templates.
• Workspace login with access code – Fixed a problem preventing the Log in button from responding correctly on the workspace login page when using access codes.
• Training credits – Addressed an error that caused the Training credits details view to fail loading in some cases.
• General stability – Various additional bug fixes and refinements to improve reliability and responsiveness across the platform.

That’s all for now. Thanks for continuing to provide feedback to help us make Heropa better every release.

We’re excited to roll out a new update packed with improvements that make Heropa more responsive, reliable, and enjoyable for instructors and students alike. This release brings smoother event creation, more stable classroom sessions, and smarter validation to help you deliver training with confidence and ease.

✨ New features

• New Zapier templates for seamless course and event automation – We’ve expanded our Zapier integration to make managing training completion effortless. The new Heropa + Arlo zapier templates use new triggers for course enrollment completion and event completion, allowing students to self-register, complete their training, and have grades and certifications automatically updated in Arlo, no manual administration required.
• New workspace controls for file uploads and copy & paste – Added new workspace options that give administrators greater control over how users interact with their VMs. A new Allow copy paste setting lets you enable or block copying and pasting into and out of the VM (while still allowing Copy to VM from content code blocks and credentials). The existing Allow file sharing option has also been updated to control whether users can drag and drop files into the workspace to upload them to their VMs.

🌱 Enhancements

• Improved event creation validation – Event creation now includes clearer inline error messages and enhanced start and end time validation for all event types, including custom events, making setup faster and more reliable.
• Event workspace and Follow Host improvements – Enhanced synchronization between instructors and participants in live sessions, improving reconnection handling, Follow Host behaviour, and overall audio/video reliability within event workspaces.
• Enhanced course and content viewing preferences – Heropa now remembers your preferred view settings across sessions for Courses, Content, Public IPs, and Hosts.
• Shared template management – Updated the confirmation modal when deleting shared templates for a clearer, safer experience.

🔧 Fixes

• Shared template import – Fixed an issue preventing import of shared templates in certain cases.
• User assignment to events – Fixed an issue assigning new users to events via the classroom page.
• Template status – Fixed template status sometimes remaining “Pending” after completion.
• Environment updates – Fixed an issue where the "Update" button stopped working if multiple changes were made to the same environment without refreshing the page.
• Event reporting – Fixed reports that previously excluded deleted users from results.
• DirectRDP countdown timers – Fixed multiple timers showing after closing workspace sessions.
• Login/logout behaviour – Visiting /login in a new tab no longer logs users out of active sessions elsewhere.
• Orphaned environment list – Fixed the Orphans page not loading correctly.
• UI fixes – Addressed button alignment, scroll, and modal visibility issues across multiple screens.

We look forward to your feedback!

We’re pleased to introduce new features and enhancements that make Heropa more responsive, intuitive, and powerful for instructors, students, and administrators alike. This release brings live preview and auto-save to content editing, improved experience for events using integrated comms in environments with poor networks, a fresh new classroom layout, and expanded support for enterprise authentication.

✨ New features

• Content auto-save and live preview: When editing content in the Content module, you can now rely on auto-save, reducing the risk of lost work. A new live preview side panel updates in real time as you edit, showing exactly how the content will appear to learners. Your branding styles are now applied in both the editor and the preview panel, ensuring visual consistency throughout. Learn more here.
• New student reminder email: A new “Your lab is waiting for you” reminder email helps re-engage learners who haven’t accessed their lab yet.
• Smart card support for Windows VMs: Windows environments can now take advantage of smart card authentication, improving compatibility with enterprise security controls and enabling more secure login workflows.

🌱 Enhancements

• Improvements for Integrated comms: 
  • Integrated comms will now automatically adjust to lower quality audio and video when network conditions degrade, helping to reduce bandwidth usage. 
  • A new toast notification alerts users when participants are experiencing poor network quality. 
  • Admins can now choose to enable or disable toast notifications for integrated comms at both the company and event level.
  • Screens for VMs shared by the host now scale their size up down to better fit the screen when the users are using screens with larger or smaller resolutions
  • Connections for VMs shared by the host now support audio playback, allowing hosts to demonstrate activities to the class that require sound.
• Better student experience with content side panel: Added click-to-copy support for code blocks and improved zoom and font size behavior in the content editor’s preview panel, making it easier for students to read content and follow commands in self-paced labs.
• Events and classroom: 
  • A fresh column-based classroom layout is now available, giving instructors more flexibility in managing participants. 
• Templates can now be public by default: A new “Templates public by default” toggle helps admins streamline template creation.
• Full-screen workspace improvements: Users in the workspace can now send the ESC key directly from the workspace toolbar. This is helpful for labs that use applications requiring the ESC key, without forcing the student to exit fullscreen mode in the browser.
• Public API: The Create environment endpoint now includes a parameter to set the access code when provisioning environments.

🔧 Bugfixes

• Workspace rendering: Resolved a display issue that occurred when the student was connected to their lab environment at a higher resolution than the instructor could view.
• Event content assignment: Fixed a bug that prevented newly added event seats from receiving their assigned content.
• Resend invite improvements: The "Resend invite" action now sends the correct email template based on user status. This includes support for new SSO users and users who have not yet completed registration.
• Environment region changes: Resolved a bug where an environments VMs did not update when the region of the assigned template was changed.
• Validation during event creation: The event creation modal also now correctly validates start and end times to help prevent scheduling errors.

We look forward to your feedback! 

Editing course content just got a whole lot easier. With Content autosave and a new Live Preview panel, you can focus on writing without worrying about losing work, and see exactly what your students will see.

📝 Content autosave: Focus on your content, not the save button

When Content autosave is enabled, your work is saved automatically after a short pause in typing. No more manual saves, your changes are preserved in real time. You’ll see a Saving… indicator while you’re typing, and a Saved! status once changes are written. If an error occurs, the editor will let you know with an error message in the status bar.

By default, autosave kicks in after 5 seconds of inactivity. Company administrators can enable autosave in Administration > Settings, and set the Content autosave wait time (5 to 60 seconds).

Prefer to save manually? No problem. Companies can choose whether autosave is enabled or not. When disabled, the Save button remains visible.

👁️ Live preview: See exactly what students will see

You can now open a real-time Preview panel to view your content as it will appear to students, without leaving the editing screen. Click the preview button(Eye icon) in the top right corner of the editor to open the preview side panel. The preview updates automatically after each save, showing your content with full branding styles applied, including:

• Headings (H1 to H6)
• Paragraph styles
• Monospaced and italic text
• Code blocks with Copy icons

This lets you verify formatting and test behavior, especially for command-line exercises, as you go.

Preview scroll is independent from the editor, so you can review earlier or later sections while editing your current content. You can also navigate between exercises using the left and right buttons in the Preview pane, making it easy to maintain flow across your course.

🎨 Your content, styled with your brand

Branding styles from your Company branding theme are now applied directly inside the Content Editor and Live Preview, so you get full visual consistency while authoring. Heading colors, font sizes, and styles will match exactly what students see during training.

🚀 Available now

This update applies to course content and is now available to all companies. To get started, head to Administration > Settings and enable Content Autosave for your organization.

Want more information? Check out our support documentation.

We’re excited to announce powerful new features and improvements designed to give you more flexibility, control, and visibility in your platform experience. This release includes integrated communications for Events, flexible time-based environment access, the ability to switch templates and regions mid-session, and several UI and usability enhancements.

✨ New features

• Integrated comms for Events: Built-in voice, video, and chat are now available directly in the Event classroom. Hosts can share their screen, individual apps—or even a participant’s VM—with the entire class. Participants can also follow the host’s view changes in real-time, making it easier to guide students through complex workflows. Learn more here.
• Limit access using Active time: Set a time limit on how long students can actively use their environment—while keeping their access window open for a longer period. Great for controlling costs while offering flexibility. Learn more here. 
• Change template or region of a running environment: Need to switch a running environment to a different template or region? Now you can—without restarting from scratch.
• Customizable “Access currently disabled” screens: The workspace view now shows different screens depending on whether an event hasn’t started, has ended, or is outside class hours. Customize these messages via the Language module.
• New notifications for changes to events:
  • Event ending soon notification: Warn users when an event is nearing its end, with configurable lead time and recipient settings. Admins can define default notification behaviors per event.
  • Event cancellation notification: Send automatic alerts to hosts and participants when an event is cancelled before it starts—so no one shows up unnecessarily.

🌱 Enhancements

• Event Classroom icons for Direct RDP: Classroom tiles now display an icon to easily identify students using Direct RDP versus browser-based access—helping instructors monitor sessions at a glance.
• Improved Direct RDP mirroring controls: Instructors now see clearer feedback during Direct RDP session mirroring, with streamlined retry logic and two new controls:
  1. Mirror now for immediate retry; and
  2. Mirror session to restart mirroring after retries have stopped.
• New reference fields in Events: Add Event code and Billing code fields to event configurations (configurable at a tenancy level via Administration > Settings). Useful for API lookups, reporting, billing, or integrations.
• Parent column in Environment list: Quickly see which event or course an environment belongs to, with a clickable link for faster navigation. Toggle this column on/off as needed.
• Persistent sort preferences in lists: Lists now default to alphabetical by Name—but if you sort by a different column, the platform remembers your choice for next time.
• Delete resources directly from Detail pages: Remove individual VMs, templates, policies, and environments right from their Detail page (via the Actions menu)—reducing navigation steps and minimizing errors.

🔧 Bugfixes

• Visiting /login in a new tab no longer logs out active sessions in other tabs.
• SSO with MFA users can now sign in seamlessly without unexpected prompts / errors.
• Credential state updates (e.g. assignment status or visibility) now appear instantly without needing to refresh.

We look forward to your feedback!

We’ve just rolled out a powerful upgrade that makes live training more engaging, collaborative, and effortless for everyone in the virtual classroom.

Introducing Integrated Comms — a built-in voice, video, and chat solution, purpose-built for virtual instructor-led training (VILT).
No more juggling external tools. Everything happens inside Heropa.

Why this matters

Until now, running a live session meant switching between different platforms to screen share, chat, or move between views.

With Integrated Comms, it’s all built-in — making sessions smoother, more interactive, and easier to manage.

✅ No more context-switching
✅ Keep everyone in sync inside the Heropa platform

What’s new?

🗣️ Built-in voice, video, and chat for seamless live collaboration

👀 “Follow the Host” mode — participants automatically track the instructor’s view as they:

• Switch between their own VM and shared desktop or window
• Share a participant’s VM with the class to highlight great work or troubleshoot live

💻 Everything happens inside Heropa — no external apps needed

Whether you’re running a hands-on lab, delivering complex software training, or troubleshooting live with participants, Integrated Comms keeps everyone connected and focused.

Ready to try it?

Reach out to the Heropa support team to enable Integrated Comms for your events.

👉 Learn more: See our support article.

👋 Hi from the Heropa team!

We’ve just released a powerful new feature that gives you greater control over training delivery — while giving your students more time and flexibility to learn.

Introducing Active Time Limit, a smarter way to deliver hands-on labs for both classroom and on-demand training. With Active Time Limit, students enjoy flexibility, and you keep training delivery costs predictable and under control.

The challenge

Traditionally, giving students 30 days of lab access meant giving them unlimited usage during that time. This offered flexibility — but also meant unexpectedly high training delivery costs, even if a student only needed a few hours.

The typical workaround? Shorter access windows. But that often limited flexibility and added pressure on learners.

The solution: Active Time Limit

With Active Time Limit, you control how much time students actively spend in the lab workspace — not just how long it’s available.

✅ Example: Give students 30 days of access, but cap usage to 5 hours of actual lab time.
✅ Flexible pacing: Students can pause and resume learning when it suits them.
✅ Cost control: You set the maximum usage time, so lab costs stay predictable — even with longer access windows.  

How it works

You can apply an Active Time Limit in two ways, depending on how you deliver training:

🖥️ On-demand labs and courses
Set an Active Time Limit within your policies — just like max duration or idle timeout. Define it at the course or environment level, allowing students to access their lab over an extended window (e.g. 30 days) while only consuming a set number of active hours (e.g. 5 hours).

🎓 Events and virtual classrooms
Enable Active Time Limit at the event level to cap the time spent in the workspace during instructor-led training.

Note: If you schedule event environments to automatically start at the start of class, and the user does not access the workspace (absent or direct RDP to the VM), Active Time is not consumed but VMs are still running. We recommend that you choose your preferred method based on your requirements.  

Example: Run a 3-day training course across 5 days. Students get up to 3 × 8-hour days of Active Time Limit and can choose which days to join, while instructors provide real-time support.

💡 The result: You keep costs predictable. Students get the freedom to learn on their own terms.

✅ Active Time Limit is available now for both Courses and Events.
It’s easy to configure — Learn how to set an Active Time Limit.