How to access your home PC from a work laptop without installing anything

• Your employer's rules. Many companies have a policy on using work laptops and networks for personal things. Read it, or ask IT. If it says no, use your own phone instead (see control your PC from a phone).
• What the laptop can see. A work laptop may run monitoring software. Whatever your home PC shows in the browser tab is on the laptop's screen too, so treat it like anything else you open at work.
• A home PC with Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) that stays on while you're out, and a free RemoteAccessApp account.

The free RemoteAccessApp Agent on your home PC keeps an outgoing connection to your account. On the work laptop, you sign in to remoteaccessapp.com in the browser, and the website shows your PCs. Open one and its screen appears in the tab, with your mouse and keyboard driving it.

Because everything goes through the website, the laptop needs no software and no special settings. It works wherever remoteaccessapp.com opens. The Windows app connects in its own way, which a strict office network may block, so the browser is the better choice at work anyway. The same goes when you're traveling: see reaching your PC from hotel or campus Wi-Fi.

Need it the other way round, your office PC from home? Start with how to reach your office PC from home, the right way, which begins with asking IT.

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   Step 1: Install RemoteAccessApp on the home PC

   At home, download the free installer from the download page and run it. It installs just for you, without administrator rights. Choose Set up this PC and sign in, or create your free account first.

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   Step 2: Keep the home PC reachable

   Leave Start RemoteAccessApp with Windows ticked. In Windows Settings, under System and then Power, set the PC not to sleep while it's plugged in. Stay signed in to Windows: remote tools can't get past the Windows sign-in or lock screen.

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   Step 3: Turn on two-step verification and unattended access

   On the website, open Dashboard, then Security, and turn on Two-factor authentication, because your account opens your PC. Then, at the home PC, right-click the RemoteAccessApp icon in the taskbar tray and choose Unattended access. Your own browsers then get in without anyone at home clicking Allow.

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   Step 4: Sign in on the work laptop

   Open remoteaccessapp.com in the laptop's browser and sign in, typing the code from your authenticator app. Your home PC is listed with whether it's online.

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   Step 5: Open your home PC

   Choose the PC. Its screen opens in the tab, and a banner shows on the home PC for as long as you're connected. When you're done, close the session and sign out.

• Keys the browser keeps for itself. The Shortcuts menu sends Windows keys a browser can't, such as the Start menu, Win+R, Alt+Tab and Task Manager.
• Picture quality. Pick Balanced for everyday use, Sharpest for small text on a fast connection, or Saves data on a slow one.
• One screen at a time. On the free plan you see the home PC's main screen. Every monitor and sound are part of Pro; the clipboard and file transfer are free with an account.
• If it drops. Switching tabs or a short network blip is fine: the session picks up again when you come back.

• Don't tick Remember this browser on a laptop other people use or that IT can sign in to. Without it, you type your code each time, which is what you want on a computer that isn't only yours.
• Sign out when you've finished, and close the tab. Your home PC stays in your account, ready for next time.
• Don't move work files to your home PC unless your employer allows it. Your company's data rules still apply.
• Remember how private it is. A browser session is encrypted, but not end to end: our website decodes the picture in memory so the browser can show it, and never records or stores it. Sessions from the Windows app are end-to-end encrypted. More in remote desktop privacy.

If the home PC shows as Offline, it's asleep, switched off, offline or signed out of Windows. If you set up Wake-on-LAN through another PC at home, try Wake up. If the page itself won't load at work, the network is blocking the website, and there's nothing to change on your side; use your phone instead. For anything else, see can't connect to a PC.