Multi-monitor remote desktop: how to see every screen of a PC

On the free plan, a session shows the remote PC's main screen. Switching to its other monitors, and showing every monitor at once, are part of Pro RemoteAccessApp Pro, along with sound. Everything else in this guide works on both.

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   Step 1: Open a session

   In the RemoteAccessApp Console, open the PC from the Devices page. You start on its main screen.

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   Step 2: Pick a display

   Use the display button in the session toolbar to choose which of the PC's displays to show, or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Right and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left to step through them. These and the other session keys are listed in keyboard shortcuts in a remote session.

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   Step 3: Show all of them, or one

   Under Display in the toolbar, Monitor chooses a single screen or All monitors, which shows the whole desktop as it's arranged on the PC.

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   Step 4: Make it big

   Press F11 for full screen on the monitor the Console is on. Zoom with Ctrl+Alt and the mouse wheel, and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+0 fits the picture back to the window.

On the website, open the screen picker in the session's toolbar. Each of the PC's screens appears as a tile with a small live picture, its number and its resolution, and the screen you're on is highlighted. Pick one to switch to it, or choose All screens to see every screen where it really is on the PC's desktop. On the free plan the other screens show a Pro badge. The screen picker works the same in a browser on a Mac; see how to control a Windows PC from a Mac.

On a laptop, an all-screens view gets small. Zoom in (pinch on a touchpad or touch screen) and drag to move around, or switch to the one screen you need. Students working on a home desktop from a laptop will find more tips in using your home PC for uni or school work from any laptop.

• Show one monitor. Every extra screen is more pixels to send. On a slow link, pick the screen you're working on rather than all of them.
• Make the window smaller, or fit the picture to the window, so there's less to draw.
• Check what the session is doing. In the Console, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I opens connection health with the delay, frame rate and speed, and offers a low-bandwidth mode on a poor connection.
• In a browser, pick Saves data or Balanced quality instead of Sharpest.

More in slow or choppy sessions and remote desktop lag, explained.

Multi-monitor can also mean the other way round: several PCs on your own screens. In the Console, Live sessions shows open PCs side by side in a Grid, or one at a time in Focus, and Ctrl+Alt+PgDn and PgUp switch between them. The free plan opens 3 at once; Pro has no limit. On the Connections page, SSH, Remote Desktop, VNC and file tabs can sit in up to eight panes, saved as workspaces.