Authenticating a rich client from within an existing browser session

A user authenticates to a Web- or cloud-based application from a browser-based client. The browser-based client has an associated rich client. After a session is initiated from the browser-based client (and a credential obtained), the user can discover that the rich client is available and cause it to obtain the credential (or a new one) for use in authenticating the user to the application (using the rich client) automatically, i.e., without additional user input. An application interface provides the user with a display by which the user can configure the rich client authentication operation, such as specifying whether the rich client should be authenticated automatically if it detected as running, whether and what extent access to the application by the rich client is to be restricted, if and when access to the application by the rich client is to be revoked, and the like.