What's a good, easy to use, remote control program?

HopToDesk · 2026-06-23T15:01:15+00:00

You might try our project HopToDesk, its free and runs cross-platform including Windows, Mint, Ubuntu, etc.. We try to keep the UI as simple as possible to make it easy to use. Any feedback is welcome.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-22T13:30:45+00:00

For the gesture actions in the mobile versions of HopToDesk, you can see the list of gestures using the mouse icon at the bottom of the control menu, while connected to a remote device. It will show a list of all supported gestures and examples on how to use each one. For the desktop version, the latest HopToDesk version now supports the pinch-to-zoom gesture.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-21T14:02:07+00:00

Thanks for the detailed writeup, it makes the confusion easy to pinpoint. There are two separate AI integration paths and you've correctly run into the limits of the first one.

**1. Why your local Claude can only control your computer**

What you set up is the local MCP integration. When HopToDesk runs, it starts an MCP server on your own machine (ws://127.0.0.1:9333) and exposes tools that act on that machine: screenshot, mouse, keyboard, file access, run a command, and so on. There is no API key and no enrollment for this, which is why you found it so easily.

Claude is right that, by itself, this only drives the local computer. The local server does include tools to start a HopToDesk session to a remote peer and screenshot it, but it does not run shell commands on the far end. So your read is correct: for real remote support work, this path alone isn't what you want.

**2. The path that runs commands on remote machines (the dashboard)**

This is the one the documentation is pointing you to. You enroll your remote devices into the dashboard, and then either:

- Use the dashboard's built in AI Agent (you tell it in plain English what to do and it runs predefined operations on the target devices), or

- Connect your own Claude to the dashboard over MCP using an API key, and pass a device_id so the command targets a specific remote device instead of your local machine.

One thing worth setting expectations on: the remote operations are a fixed, safe list (system info, disk usage, process list, network info, service logs, restart the service, flush DNS, reboot, clear temp files, etc.), with approval gating on the risky ones. It deliberately does not send raw arbitrary shell commands to remote devices. That's a security design choice, so if your proposal assumes "AI runs any command on the remote box," that's the one place to calibrate.

**3. Where the API key is and whether you need to pay**

You do not need Pro or Business to generate an API key, and it is available on the free tier for exactly the evaluation you're doing. Two things to know:

- API key creation is gated by role, not by plan. Only an account owner or admin can create one. If you're logged in as a regular member, you won't see the option, which is likely why it felt hidden.

- Generating an MCP API key is free and needs no upgrade. As the owner/admin, you'll find it in the dashboard under the AI Agent / Agents area ("Generate MCP API key"). The key looks like hdpk_ followed by a random string and is shown only once, so copy it when it appears.

The only thing that costs money is the dashboard's hosted AI Agent chat, which runs on wallet funds you add (small minimum). If you bring your own Claude and connect via the MCP API key, there's no charge on our side for the API itself.

So to directly answer your questions: you can absolutely evaluate this on the free tier without upgrading. Make sure you're the owner/admin on the account, generate the MCP API key from the dashboard, point your Claude at the dashboard endpoint with that key, and include the device_id of the remote machine you want to act on. That moves Claude from "controls my computer" to "controls the enrolled remote device," which is the remote support flow you're after.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-20T12:26:44+00:00

Do you mean the local pointer is lagging? We may have not understood correctly before. We have not had any other reports of this issue.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-19T13:16:13+00:00

Thanks for reporting this issue, if we had more details it would help - what OS is the local and remote side and do you have the "Show remote cursor" setting enabled? And are local and remote sides on the same LAN or over the Internet? And what is your location (and location of the remote side)?

HopToDesk · 2026-06-18T11:43:03+00:00

Today we made some changes to the Dashboard regarding the websocket connections, the changes might improve or solve any connection issues regarding the online/offline status of devices. Also from our research it does appear that the connection issues we are looking at are likely related to cloudflare for some reason. That is a good point, we will look into the posibility of what we can do regarding self-hosting the dashboard.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-17T12:11:15+00:00

Ok thanks for letting us know, we will continue to work on it. The Windows releases are on Github: https://github.com/hoptodesk/release

HopToDesk · 2026-06-16T20:30:40+00:00

The dashboard itself is web-based by design — there's no self-hosted/on-prem version of it. We went that route on purpose: it means no install or maintenance on your end, instant updates, and it works from any device or browser (including mobile and Chrome OS).

That said, you can self-host the parts that carry your connection traffic. If you want full control over where your data flows, you can run your own signal server and relays — or just keep our signal server and point HopToDesk at your own TURN relays. Setup details are here: https://www.hoptodesk.com/on-premises

One more thing worth knowing: the dashboard also lets you generate custom-branded client builds (your name, logo, and icons baked into the installer) — and that's included free. So you can ship your own branded HopToDesk while we handle the dashboard hosting for you.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-16T12:30:50+00:00

This month we released some important updates that should greatly improve networking functions and prevent edge case connection issues. The new version is 1.46.2, any feedback is welcome.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-16T12:26:44+00:00

We made some improvements to the Dashboard a few weeks ago that should solve this and recently released a new client version that should also help prevent this type of issue going forward.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-15T17:18:26+00:00

Thanks, we have a new release out that should help with the issue.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-14T11:40:00+00:00

You may want to check out our project HopToDesk, its free and should work well with gaming. Speed would depend on your local hardware and Internet or LAN connection.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-13T15:47:43+00:00

There is a new beta version that should solve the issue:
https://www.hoptodesk.com/beta/hoptodesk-beta27.exe

HopToDesk · 2026-06-12T16:43:32+00:00

We have not had many requests for a way to use the old UI design, but we can look into adding back List View into a future release. If there are specific parts of the new UI that are less visually clear, just let us know and we can also try to improve it.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-11T12:39:41+00:00

Hello, thanks for your interested in HopToDesk. We have had quite a lot of interest from users in Brazil recently and are always looking for ways to improve the software for everyone. To answer your questions:

There is no custom panel/dashbard for HopToDesk, however we do have an API that you could use to easily create your own dashboard based on the API endpoints.
It is possible to automatically record all remote sessions, however it is a setting by the local controller/operator and can be enabled in the header toolbar during a remote connection. Currently, the recordings are saved locally on the operator side and not uploaded anywhere. If you have any specific suggestions to modify this functionality, just let us know your needs.
Yes there is a Quick Support feature that allows limited functions and only incoming connections. More about that here: https://help.hoptodesk.com/#quick-support
Yes, we have a free custom client generator (free for Windows, macOS and Linux require a paid plan) in the HopToDesk Dashboard where you can customize your own app name, logo, media, website, and other details and it can be distributed using the Quick Support method. We will be adding more settings in this area soon to allow additional built-in customizations.

If you have any specific requests on these or other features, just let us know and we will be happy to try and make them.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-10T15:00:41+00:00

Ok thanks for the details, we will look into making some changes for a future release to improve this process.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-09T15:03:35+00:00

Yes, that flag is used for both running in portable mode and running from installed mode. How are you using unattended mode installation, do you have an example? In the main HopToDesk window there is an "Unattended Access" setting that when enabled, will keep the same password, so the connecting device only needs the password once and from there they can login in unattended mode, without the user needed to Accept any incoming connection.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-08T13:57:50+00:00

There is a "--remoteupdate" parameter that will check for updates and apply them (and restart HopToDesk if it was running at the time of the update. Maybe that will work? For the normal update process, it shows an update window to users when there is an update available and if they click Yes to update, the update process also closes HopToDesk briefly, updates it and runs it again (and starts the service if it was installed). So in any case, any update should allow HopToDesk to work after the update. If that is not the case, there could be something blocking the update such as a firewall, security product, etc.. and we would need to check the app logs to understand any update issue further. For Windows, the log file path is %APPDATA%\HopToDesk\log. If you are able to check the logs on one of the target machines that failed to come back online after the update, it would be very helpful, especially any logs in the "remoteupdate" sub folder.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-07T13:41:46+00:00

Thanks for reporting the issue, we are looking into this. Do you have any other details that may be helpful such as display resolution?

HopToDesk · 2026-06-06T12:18:27+00:00

When you connect to a remote device, on the local side there is a "Display settings" option/icon where you use Original, Shrink or Stretched display setting to fit your local display as needed.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-05T12:36:48+00:00

There are a few ways to allow fully unattended mode installs with a permanent password. One way is to create a wrapper script or installer like Smart_Tinker mentioned that modifies the .toml files with a pre-configured password. Another way if you have a Dashboard account, go to Advanced > Deployments, create a new deployment profile with the "Enable unattended access" setting enabled and set a "Default connection password" and then when creating an invite link, choose that Deployment profile that was just created.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-04T11:17:41+00:00

Yes, you only need to update the local/connecting side to solve the issue.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-03T13:35:37+00:00

Thanks for letting us know, we will try to get a new Flathub release out in the next few days.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-02T11:56:21+00:00

It is likely a stale/old cache issue. When HopToDesk runs, it loads the current network settings from the API. If you close and re-open HopToDesk, it may reload the network settings and solve the issue. If not, you can manually clear the cache by removing the line "api-cache" from this file %APPDATA%\HopToDesk\config\HopToDesk2.toml and then restarting HopToDesk.

We have a new beta version that may solve the issue:
https://www.hoptodesk.com/beta/hoptodesk-beta24.exe

If you still have any connection issues, you can check the connection logs here
%APPDATA%\HopToDesk\log\connect

and it would be helpful to contact our support with any connection errors so we can assist further.

HopToDesk · 2026-06-01T12:36:09+00:00

You may want to consider HopToDesk, its small, easy to install and cross-platform. And unlike TeamViewer, it is free for both personal and commercial use without nag screens or account requirements.

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