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How to Access Datastream

Datastream is a historical financial database with over 35 million individual instruments or indicators across all major asset classes, including 8.5 million active economic indicators. It features 65 years of data, across 175 countries – the information and tools you need to interpret market trends, economic cycles, and the impact of world events.

Unique content includes I/B/E/S Estimates aggregates, Worldscope Fundamentals Point in Time data, and Reuters Polls.

Data spans bond indices, bonds, commodities, convertibles, credit default swaps, derivatives, economics, energy, equities, equity indices, ESG, estimates, exchange rates, fixed income, funds, fundamentals, interest rates, and investment trusts.

Datastream is run on a virtual computer hosted on the LCB server farm. As such, only 1 user at a time may access the software. We ask that you do not process any data on this machine. Instead, you should download the data to another location such as Microsoft OneDrive and then process the data on your local computer.

Once you have completed your Datastream session, make sure you sign off the remote machine to make it available to the next user. NOTE: Simply closing the Remote Desktop session is not enough to sign off the Datastream computer. You must follow the steps listed in the Sign Off the Datastream Remote Computer section below to properly disconnect.


Preparing to Access Datastream

Before you can begin using a vApp, you must first ensure that you have the latest version of Microsoft Remote Desktop installed on your computer. Refer to the How to Install Microsoft Remote Desktop self-service article to ensure you have the latest version of the software available.


Windows 10 Users

  1. Open the Windows menu.
  2. Select Windows Accessories.
  3. Select Remote Desktop Connection.
  4. For the Computer: text field, enter datastream.lebow.drexel.edu.
  5. Select Connect.
  6. Sign on using your Drexel credentials.
    • If prompted The identity of this computer cannot be verified. Do you want to connect anyway?.
      1. Select Don’t ask me again for connections to this computer.
      2. Select Yes.
  7. Launch Datastream 5.1 from the remote machine desktop.


macOS Users

  1. Open Finder from the task bar.
  2. Select Applications.
  3. Launch Microsoft Remote Desktop.
  4. In the Desktops tab, open the + dropdown menu and select Desktop.
  5. Complete the Add Desktop form as follows:
    • PC Name: datastream.lebow.drexel.edu
    • Friendly Name: Datastream 5.1
  6. Select Add.
  7. Launch the Datastream 5.1 remote desktop.
  8. Sign on using your Drexel credentials
    • NOTE: Enter your username as an email address (ex. abc123@drexel.edu).
  9. Launch Datastream 5.1 from the remote machine desktop.


Sign Off the Datastream Remote Computer

  1. Open the remote machine Windows menu.
  2. Select Log Off.

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How to Install Microsoft Remote Desktop

Instructions for installing the latest version of Microsoft Remote Desktop.