Guide

How to control a Windows PC from Linux

Moved your own computer to Linux, but the family PC, the office desktop or the gaming rig still runs Windows? You can reach them all from your Linux desktop. RemoteAccessApp for Linux includes the Console (to reach your other PCs) as well as the Agent, so one install gives you a proper app for it, not just a browser tab.

This guide installs it on Linux, adds a Windows PC to your account and opens it, with the screen, keyboard, a terminal and the tools.

  • Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Fedora and more
  • No ports to open
  • Free for 5 PCs

Updated · Linux Console on 64-bit X11 or Wayland desktops, Windows 10 and 11 PCs

Set it up

  1. Step 1: Install RemoteAccessApp on your Linux PC

    On the download page, get the .deb for Ubuntu, Debian, Mint and other apt-based distributions, and install it with the command the page shows, from the folder you saved it in:

    sudo apt install ./remoteaccessapp_*_amd64.deb

    On other 64-bit distributions, such as Fedora, use the .tar.gz and its install script instead. The install guide has both, and the announcement RemoteAccessApp is now on Linux sums up what the Agent and Console for Linux do.

  2. Step 2: Open the Console and sign in

    Open RemoteAccessApp from your app menu (not RemoteAccessApp Agent, which is this PC's own settings) and sign in with your account, or create a free one. You don't have to add the Linux PC itself to use it.

  3. Step 3: Install RemoteAccessApp on the Windows PC

    On the Windows PC, run the installer from the download page and choose Set up this PC for remote access. Leave Allow mouse & keyboard control and Start RemoteAccessApp with Windows on.

  4. Step 4: Add it with a setup code

    In the Console on Linux, click Add a PC. Type the 6-digit code into the Windows PC when it asks, or sign in there with your account. The Windows PC appears on your Devices page.

  5. Step 5: Open it

    Double-click the Windows PC. The person there sees Allow remote access? and clicks Allow, unless unattended access lets your console in. Then its desktop opens in a tab under Live sessions.

Already have Windows PCs in your account?

Then skip straight to signing in: they're on the Devices page of the Console for Linux, exactly as on Windows or the website.

Working on the Windows PC

  • Keys. What you type goes to the Windows PC. For combinations your own desktop would catch, use the Keys button in the session: Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), Alt+Tab and more. Windows doesn't let remote tools press Ctrl+Alt+Del, so the Console offers Task Manager instead.
  • Type text. Pastes text into the PC by typing it key by key, handy where pasting doesn't work.
  • Screen. Fit, full screen (F11) and a quality setting for slow connections. With Pro, switch between the PC's monitors.
  • Several PCs. Each session is a tab, so you can keep a few Windows and Linux PCs open side by side. The free plan has 3 open at once.

Terminal, tools and files

  • A terminal on the Windows PC. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell in a session, or right-click the PC on the Devices page for Run a command… without one. The person at the PC sees the exact command first unless unattended access lets you in. Linux PCs on the same page work the same way with bash: see how to run commands on a Linux PC without a remote session.
  • Windows tools. The PC's processes, services, sessions and Event Log, from the Console.
  • Files and clipboard. Drop files from your Linux file manager onto the session to send them, browse the PC's folders, and copy text and pictures both ways. Chat works on every plan. For the reverse, see how to transfer files to and from a Linux PC.
  • Help someone. For a PC that isn't yours, they read you the code under This PC's code, and you type it under Connect to a PC on Home. No account needed. See one-time support codes. Linux PCs have the same 8-digit codes, so you can also help someone on a Linux PC with a one-time code.

Reaching it when nobody's there

For your own Windows PC, turn on unattended access at that PC: right-click the RemoteAccessApp icon in its taskbar tray and choose Unattended access. Your trusted consoles then get in without a click, and the PC still shows a banner with End in every session. See setting up unattended access.

Keep that Windows PC signed in: remote tools can't get past the Windows sign-in or lock screen. Linux PCs are different there, because you can unlock a locked Linux PC remotely with the user's password in a session the PC allowed.

Every connection goes out from both PCs to RemoteAccessApp's servers, so there's nothing to open on either router, and sessions from the Console are end-to-end encrypted.

No install? Use a browser

On a Linux PC you can't install software on, sign in at remoteaccessapp.com instead and open the Windows PC in the browser. The screen and control work there; the terminal and the tools are in the Console. See access your PC from a browser. The same goes for a Mac: there's no Mac app, but the browser works.

Questions, answered

More on RemoteAccessApp for Linux

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