+++
title = "Lab Environment"
chapter = false
weight = 10
+++

You will use AWS Appstream to connect to your lab environment. You will find the Appstream URL in your team dashboard.

@TODO Screenshot

## Lab information 

The AWS Appstream session that you are using for this hands on lab has the following programs pre-installed:

- Python3 (taskcat is Python program)
- taskcat (pip install taskcat)
- Vscode with plugins pre-installed 
  - taskcat config validation
  - cfn-lint validation
  - CloudFormation template auto-complete and doc links from the cfn-resource-spec

## Auto save

The IDE is configured to auto-save files when they are changed, so there is no need to 
manually save files.

## Copy paste

Copy and paste should work out of the box on all browsers, in some browsers you may get 
a dialog box requesting clipboard access which must be allowed to enable copy-paste.

The AppStream also provides a tool in the top left of the window that enables placing 
data into the AppStream session's clipboard. This is recommended for pasting large 
blocks of text.

### MAC OS

On Mac OS the function of the Command key is swapped with that of the Control key, so
to copy/paste in the appstream environment the shortcuts are control-c and control-v 
respectively.