Connecting and the session toolbar
Once the host accepts, the viewer shows the remote screen with a toolbar across the top. From left to right:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dot and ID | The host you’re connected to. The dot turns amber while reconnecting. |
| Direct / Relayed badge | How the video travels, and the round trip in milliseconds. See below. |
| Fullscreen | Fills the screen with the remote desktop. Press it again to leave. |
| Monitor picker | Lists the host’s displays with their resolution and marks the primary. Add display… adds a virtual display when the host allows it. |
| Clipboard | Turns clipboard sync on or off. It starts off. |
| Sound / Muted | Mutes or unmutes the host’s sound on your side. |
| Files | Opens the file transfer panel. |
| Record / Stop | Records the session to a video file. A red timer shows while it runs. |
| Timer | How long this session has run. |
| Disconnect | Ends the session. |
An Encrypted label sits in the bottom-right corner for the whole session.
The host sees a smaller toolbar with the timer, the Clipboard toggle and Disconnect, and a message saying You are being controlled by the viewer’s ID.
Direct or Relayed
Section titled “Direct or Relayed”OpenDesk first tries a direct UDP connection between the two computers, the same way video calls do. If that works, the badge says Direct and video and input go straight between the two machines.
If a firewall or network blocks it, the badge says Relayed: the traffic goes through the relay server instead. It’s still end-to-end encrypted, just usually slower. Hover over the badge for an explanation.
The number after the badge is the round trip time. It turns amber above 100 ms. On a relayed connection, a relay closer to both computers helps; see Self-hosting a relay.
Clipboard
Section titled “Clipboard”With Clipboard on, text you copy on one side can be pasted on the other. Only text is synced, up to 1 MB at a time. Either side can turn it off, and the setting is remembered for the next session.
The host sends its system sound (what you’d hear from its speakers), never its microphone. That works on Windows, on macOS 14.6 and later, and on Linux with PulseAudio or PipeWire (through pipewire-pulse). Other hosts send no sound.
Click Files, then Send file…, or drop files anywhere on the window. Either side can send.
The other side is asked first: the host sees an Accept this file? dialog with the name and size, and the viewer sees the offer in its file panel. Accepted files are saved to the Downloads folder. OpenDesk checks each file’s SHA-256 hash before it finishes saving it, and gives a file a new name rather than overwrite one that’s already there.
Recording
Section titled “Recording”Record saves what you see of the remote screen as a .webm video in your
Downloads folder. Click Stop to finish. When the file is complete,
the app says Recording saved to and the path.
Recording happens on the viewer only. The host isn’t told about it, so ask before you record someone else’s screen.
When the connection drops
Section titled “When the connection drops”If the network drops during a session, the viewer shows Reconnecting and tries to get back in by itself for a short while, with the same password. If the host uses a 2FA code, a reconnect needs a fresh code, because each code can only be used once.
When the host clicks Disconnect, the viewer shows The host ended the session. and doesn’t reconnect.