Use Remote Desktop

View and control a device's screen from the octoja web interface - Toolbox panel walkthrough for Windows agents.

Written By Erdinc Akay

Last updated 17 days ago

Use Remote Desktop

Remote Desktop opens a device's screen inside the octoja web interface. The video stream travels over the same realtime tunnel that powers the terminal and the file explorer — no RDP client, no VPN, no extra ports. Sessions are limited to devices running the Windows agent.

Prerequisites

  • The device is online (agent connected) and runs the Windows octoja agent.
  • Your account belongs to a group whose Device Access grants the Remote Desktop action — enable it under Administration → Groups → Device Access → Allowed actions.
  • Your browser supports the WebCodecs API — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all qualify in their current evergreen versions.

Steps

  1. Go to Devices and open the device you want to control.
  2. On the device detail page, click the Remote Desktop icon button in the toolbar at the top right (the button is icon-only — hover it to see the Remote Desktop tooltip). octoja opens a new browser window titled Toolbox — <device name> with the Remote Desktop tab active.
  3. To add another session from a Toolbox window that is already open, click the + (New Tab) button next to the tab strip and choose Remote Desktop.
  4. Pick a session: octoja queries the agent for the available interactive Windows sessions. Choose the console session, an active RDP session, or a specific user. If the device has multiple monitors, you can also pick which display to view. On a normal device, selecting a session row immediately starts connecting — there is no separate Connect confirmation. If the device is set to require consent, octoja instead shows a Connect to remote desktop prompt: choose Request consent to ask the signed-in user to approve (the panel shows Waiting for the user to approve the connection until they respond), or Connect without consent if your group holds the Bypass Remote-Desktop Consent action, which records a reason for the access.
  5. Wait for the first frame, which appears within a couple of seconds; the panel shows the active codec (H.264, VP9, AV1, or Auto) and current frame rate. If the picture looks cut off or the stream stutters, see Fix picture problems below.
  6. Use the surface as you would a local desktop. Mouse and keyboard input is forwarded to the device. To send special key combinations, open Send keys and choose Ctrl+Alt+Del, Esc, Windows key, Win+R, Alt+F4, or Print Screen — these cannot be typed normally because the browser intercepts them.
  7. To end the session, click Disconnect or close the toolbox tab. The session ends cleanly on both sides.

Tip: If no session is offered, the agent has not detected an interactive Windows session yet. Refresh the chooser once a user signs in or connects via RDP.

What the panel shows

  • Frame rate — choose Auto (picks a frame rate based on the agent machine's capability), lower (less bandwidth, fine for admin work), medium (good interactive default), or higher (smoothest, needs a capable agent and network).
  • Codec — auto picks the best codec your browser supports; you can override it from the settings menu if a specific codec performs better on the device. If the picture is cut off or the stream stutters, switching the codec is the usual fix — see Fix picture problems below.
  • Lock remote on disconnect — open the settings menu (the gear icon) and turn on Lock remote on disconnect to lock the remote computer automatically when the session ends. This is a per-session option that starts off; once enabled, the remote machine is locked even if your browser is closed unexpectedly.
  • Display picker — switch between monitors when the device has more than one.
  • Send keys — Ctrl+Alt+Del, Escape, Windows key, Win+R, Alt+F4, Print Screen, and other reserved combinations.
  • Clipboard sync — toggle Enable clipboard sync to share clipboard contents between your browser and the remote session; a status indicator shows whether the channel is active or blocked.
  • Paste (Auto-Type Clipboard) — types the current clipboard contents on the remote as keystrokes. Designed for secure desktops (UAC, login screen) where the normal clipboard channel is unavailable.
  • Drop to upload — drag a file from your desktop onto the surface to upload it to the signed-in user's Downloads folder on the device.
  • Statistics — open the stats menu to inspect bandwidth, keyframe share, and frame size for the current stream.
  • Latency probe — flashes the remote screen red and times the round-trip until the browser sees red pixels, giving you an interactive end-to-end latency reading.
  • Fullscreen — expand the surface to fill the browser window; press Esc or click Exit fullscreen to return.

Fix picture problems

Most picture problems in a session can be fixed from the Settings menu (the gear icon in the toolbar). Changes to Codec and Frame rate apply to the running session, but not instantly — the stream resets and re-syncs first, so give it a few seconds before judging the result.

SymptomWhat to do
The picture is cut off or the resolution looks wrong (often on High-DPI displays)Open Settings → Codec and select VP9. Some display resolutions render incorrectly with H.264 or AV1; with VP9 the picture is usually correct right away. Leave the Resolution setting unchanged — see the last row.
The stream stutters or the frame rate is low on a slow connectionOpen Settings → Frame rate and pick a lower value, or try a different codec under Settings → Codec. Wait a few seconds after each change — the switch does not take effect immediately.
The screen resolution on the device itself has changedThis happens when the Resolution setting was changed during a session: it really switches the display resolution on the remote device, not just in the stream. Set it back to the original value — and if you changed it to work around a picture problem, switch the codec to VP9 instead.

An administrator can require that the signed-in user approve every remote desktop session before it starts. Two settings control this behaviour, both applied fleet-wide from a config package's Agent tab (and overridable per device on the device page).

  • Require user consent for remote desktop — when this is on for a device, connecting shows the Connect to remote desktop prompt described in the steps above. You can Request consent and wait for the user to approve, or — if your group holds the Bypass Remote-Desktop Consent action — Connect without consent, which records the reason you enter. If the user declines or does not respond in time, the connection does not start.
  • Auto-lock after remote desktop — locks the device automatically when a remote desktop session ends. This is the fleet-wide equivalent of the per-session Lock remote on disconnect toggle; technicians can still override it for an individual session from the settings menu.

Tips

  • Other technicians can connect to the same target at the same time; the panel shows a multi-controller warning when that happens.
  • The session is tied to your browser tab. Closing the tab ends the session cleanly. Reloading the tab reconnects from scratch.
  • If the surface stays blank but the device is online, the agent could not enumerate a desktop target — check that an interactive session is available on the device.
  • Sessions are recorded in the device activity log under the source Direct Session, just like terminal sessions.