1. How to use Chrome Remote Desktop on a mobile device. Here are those gestures for controlling a desktop computer remotely from a mobile device: Scroll up and down: Swipe with two fingers. Click and drag: Drag with a finger. Zoom: Pinch and stretch with two.
2. Remote Mouse™ turns your mobile phone or tablet into a user-friendly remote control for your computer.

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Chrome Remote Desktop with external mouse? Ask Question Asked 1 year. Right mouse click starts working like on PC, so I then connect throug browser client. I don't know if that is possible on other tablets. Using Bluetooth keyboard and mouse via Remote Desktop. Chrome Remote Desktop is a remote desktop software tool developed by Google that allows a user to remotely control another computer through a proprietary protocol developed by Google unofficially called 'Chromoting'. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network. Of course a left-click is just a single tap, but a right-click is a two-finger tap (a long-press is far more common in remote desktop apps). Click and drag is also a bit confusing at first. Most apps use double-tap and drag, but not Chrome Remote Desktop. And, if you need cheap MS products, try our website: 100special, com.

Chrome Remote Desktop lets you take control of a computer. It works through the Chrome browser, works on all operating systems, and gives you complete control.

In this post, we’ll look at what you can do with it, why you’d want to, and how to set it up.

What can you do with Chrome Remote Desktop?

Chrome Remote Desktop lets you take over another computer remotely. You can use it to remotely access your own computer, access someone else’s, or allow someone else to remotely access yours.

There’s a few situations where this comes in handy:

• You’re at home and need a file or app from your work computer.
• Someone in your family needs you to show them how to use something on their computer.
• You have tech problems and someone on support needs to check a few things on your computer.

What devices can you use?

You can use a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. For operating systems, Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux, iOS, and Android all work.

If you want to use a mobile device you’ll need to use the Chrome Remote Desktop app. Desktop and laptop users should use the Chrome Remote Desktop web app.

How to use Chrome Remote Desktop

You will need:

• A Google account
• Chrome browser on both computers
• About ten minutes to set it up the first time. After that, it takes less than a minute to open the app, enter a code, and you’re in.

First, open the Chrome user profile you want to work from. Then, open Chrome Remote Desktop here: https://remotedesktop.google.com/

The setup process is the same for Mac and Windows. We have special instructions on setting up Linux and Chromebook below.

How to set up remote access

On the computer you want to access remotely, go to the Remote Access tab. Then download the application:

This opens the Chrome Web Store page for the Chrome Remote Desktop extension. Always make sure you’re downloading the one marked with the developed-by-Google “G,” not some third-party copycat.

Once the extension is installed, select it from the extensions bar to download and set up the app.

Click the download button on the web page that opened when you clicked the extension. And don’t close the page, it’s the wizard for the early stages of installing the app.

Go through the installer and finish installing the app.

Once it’s installed, go back to the web page to choose a name for your computer:

Then you’ll need to choose a PIN of at least six numbers. This will be the code that provides another machine access your computer.

Chrome will offer to save this as a password. Now you’ll see your device as “online” in the Chrome Remote Desktop web portal.

You still need to install Chrome Remote Desktop on the computer or device you’re controlling from.

Let’s say it’s a mobile device this time. We’re going to connect an Android phone to Chrome Remote Desktop, then use it to remote-manage our Mac. To do that, download the Chrome Remote Desktop app to your phone from the Play Store.

Then you’ll see your computer’s desktop display on your phone screen:

At first, it’s not totally intuitive. You can’t just use it the way you’d use a normal mobile display. Instead, you have to move the mouse pointer with the touchscreen and mouse over things to select them. The touchscreen gestures take a little getting used to.

But you do have direct, complete access. You can open new applications and see anything on your phone that you can on your desktop.

Leaving aside cosmetic differences in the appearance of the app, the functionality is the same across all operating systems. Your computers appear in a list, you select one, enter the PIN you created, and you have access.

If you wanted to do this from an iPhone, install Chrome Remote Desktop from the App Store and sign in. You should see your other devices in your My Computers list.

How to set up remote support

Remote support assumes that you don’t want a permanent connection with the other person’s computer. Both of you need to have Chrome Remote Desktop installed, but beyond that the process is quicker.

If you want to get remote support, click that option to get an autogenerated code that expires in five minutes:

If you want to give remote support, ask the other person for that code, select the Give Support option, enter the code, and you’ll have access to the other person’s computer.

Chrome Remote Desktop control isn’t an either-or choice. If you have access to my computer, I’m not locked out. I can still type, control windows, and click on things at the same time.

How to use Chrome Remote Desktop on a mobile device

Here are those gestures for controlling a desktop computer remotely from a mobile device:

• Scroll up and down: Swipe with two fingers
• Click and drag: Drag with a finger
• Zoom: Pinch and stretch with two fingers
• Show keyboard: Swipe up with two fingers
• Show toolbar: Swipe down with three fingers
• Move the mouse: Swipe anywhere on screen (trackpad mode only in iOS*)
• Left-click: Tap screen
• Right-click: Tap screen with two fingers (trackpad mode only in iOS)
• Middle-click: Tap with three fingers (trackpad mode only in iOS)

If you don’t have trackpad mode enabled, you can swipe down with three fingers to call up a menu bar that offers the keyboard, the mouse functions, and the toolbar.

How to install Chrome Remote Desktop on Linus and Chromebook

Linux

First, download and install the Chrome Remote Desktop application as above.

Then, install the Chrome Remote Desktop Debian package: https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb

Next, create a virtual desktop session, following these four steps. If you have Ubuntu 12.04, skip to Step 4.

1. Look in /usr/share/xsessions/ for the .desktop file for your desktop environment. It’s usually named after the environment—Cinnamon uses a file called cinnamon.desktop, for instance.
2. Create a file called .chrome-remote-desktop-session in your home directory, with this content: exec /usr/sbin/lightdm-session “<YOUR_EXEC_COMMAND>”
3. Replace <YOUR_EXEC_COMMAND> with the command at the end of your .desktop file. In Cinnamon, for instance, this is: exec /usr/sbin/lightdm-session ‘gnome-session –session=cinnamon’. If you’re using a Unity desktop, you’ll need some additional code. This is the command you should use: DESKTOP_SESSION=ubuntu XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u) exec /usr/sbin/lightdm-session ‘gnome-session –session=ubuntu’
4. Save the file called .chrome-remote-desktop-session

Allow remote connections on your Linux machine by following these steps:

1. Open Chrome on your Linux machine.
2. Type chrome://apps in the omnibar.
3. Select Chrome Remote Desktop from your Chrome apps.
4. Go to My Computers, then select Get Started.
5. Select Enable Remote Connections.
6. Enter a PIN, retype it, and click OK.
7. Dismiss the information dialog.

Chromebook

Log into Chrome, find the Chrome Remote Desktop web app in the Chrome Web Store, and launch it. You’ll do the same Chrome extension install as you would on a Mac or Windows desktop, but then you’re finished—there’s nothing else to install.

The downsides of Chrome Remote Desktop

Chrome Remote Desktop sounds like a great tool, and it is. But there are a few downsides.

Everyone involved needs to have Chrome and a Google account. And every computer in the equation needs to have Chrome Remote Desktop installed. You can’t control a computer remotely if it doesn’t already have the Chrome Remote Desktop app.

In terms of potential problems, there are reports of issues installing Chrome Remote Desktop on Chromebooks and not a lot of Google documentation to help you. If you have a G Suite account, you’ll probably have better luck getting someone at Google to give you a hand. There have also been reports this year of the Chromebook version not letting users add new computers.

What about functions Chrome Remote Desktop doesn’t support?

There’s no chat capability, so you’ll need to take your chatting elsewhere like a Google Doc, text messaging, or Hangouts.

You can’t copy files to or from remote computers. And you can’t send remote files to a local printer. You can retrieve files—by either emailing them to yourself or uploading them to the cloud and work on them remotely. But you can’t treat two devices as one environment spread across two pieces of hardware.

Finally, on desktop, the use of custom keyboard shortcuts is limited. You’ll be using the mouse a lot.

In this issue

REMOTE ACCESS: How to use Chrome Remote Desktop

BEST OF THE LOUNGE: Get the September 2020 patches installed

Additional articles in the PLUS issue

LANGALIST: Updated: A textbook-perfect Win10 reinstall

SHORTS: An audio problem in Win10, a forgotten app, and a Dropbox update

INDEX: AskWoody Plus Newsletters: January through September

REMOTE ACCESS

By Lance Whitney

There are plenty of apps for connecting two devices. Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop offers a simple, free, and no-frills approach to remote access.

As you might expect, Chrome Remote Desktop (CRD) is cross-platform; there are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You can also connect to a “host” system from an iPhone, iPad, or Android device via mobile apps. Use the app to remotely access your home or work machine, or to provide someone else with support and/or troubleshooting help.

To use CRD, you need two things: the Chrome browser and a Google account. (No surprise there.) The setup process starts with installing the CRD app and Chrome extension on the host computer (the machine you want to access.) Launch the Chrome browser and open the “chrome remote desktop” page. If prompted, sign in to your Google account. You should now see the window shown in Figure 1. Click the download button.

Figure 1. Installing Chrome Remote Desktop starts with pressing the download button.

The next window displays the message: “Ready to install.” Click the Accept & Install button shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. The second window in the CRD installation process

The next window (Figure 3) requests that you give the host system a name, which will eventually show up on the remote (aka “guest”) device. You can stick with the default name, if it makes sense. (It won’t if you have several identical systems.) Click Next.

Figure 3. Each host system will need a unique name.

You’ll now be asked to enter a PIN that remote systems will use to access the host (Figure 4). The PIN must contain at least six digits.

Figure 4. Be sure to uncheck the “Help improve Chrome Remote Desktop … ” box if you don’t want telemetry data sent back to Google.

Now segue to the remote/guest computer you wish to use to access the host. Sign in to your Google account and open the CRD access page. Here, you have two options: 1) Immediately launch a remote-access session with the listed host, or 2) install CRD on the guest system (repeating the steps above). Figure 5 shows a prompt to set up CRD on the second PC. Installing CRD on each machine gives a better remote-computing experience. It also allows both systems to be either a guest or a host.

Figure 5. You can skip setting up CRD on the remote system and connect immediately to the host.

The view from the host system is shown in Figure 6. In this case, CRD was installed on the second remote system, so it can act as a host, too.

Figure 6. The main CRD screen showing two systems online

When you launch Chrome Remote Desktop, the main screen will display available hosts. Important: You’ll see only guests and hosts that are signed in under the same Google account.

To start a remote-access session, click a listed remote device and enter its PIN. To save time with future sessions, you can tick the checkbox to remember the PIN. That’s okay if both host and guest are in the same secure location. Otherwise, leave that option unchecked for better security.

You should soon see the host system’s desktop in a new Chrome browser tab, and your local keyboard and mouse will now control the host system: navigate windows, launch programs, and work with files.

If someone is sitting at the host machine, they can continue to use it as well. That’s useful when you’re trying to help someone with a computing issue or when troubleshooting system problems. (They can also click a “Stop Sharing” button to end the session.) Here’s a bonus: If you’re playing audio (say, music) on one machine, it’ll also play on the connected system.

To enhance your view of the host system, CRD offers various options for tweaking connection and display elements. Move your mouse to the right edge of the browser screen and click the blue circle with the left arrow. An options dock appears on the right (Figure 7).

Figure 7. The Session options box offers a robust collection of customization settings.

You can, for example, switch to “Full-screen” mode, which hides Chrome’s toolbars and tabs. Or toggle “Scale to fit” on or off to better see the size of the remote session. The “Resize to fit” option changes the resolution of the remote session to match that of the guest. Uncheck “Smooth scaling” if you’re having trouble reading the host’s text.

If you want to share items copied to the clipboard between the two computers, click Begin under “Enable clipboard synchronization.”

“Input controls” lets you send command keystrokes such as Ctrl + Alt + Del and Print Screen. You can also configure key mappings in order to remap a local key to a different host key.

I recommend ticking “Press and hold left shift to access options” for faster access to the Sessions options box. “Relative mouse mode” limits mouse activity to the remote session screen, which might be necessary for certain types of programs.

CRD supports hosts with multiple screens. Under Displays, you can switch between all screens or specific screens. That can be a big help if your guest device is a notebook. Under “File Transfer,” you can upload or download a file between the host and guest systems.

Back at the top of the options dock, click the left arrow to move it to the left side of the screen. If you want to make Session options always visible, click the pin icon (see Figure 8). To disconnect the remote session, just close its Chrome tab.

Figure 8. The Session options box can be moved to the left edge of the screen and pinned in place.

You can give someone else permission to access your machine. To do so, go back to the home CRD screen (where you start new sessions) and click Remote Support. Under Get Support, click the GENERATE CODE button (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Use GENERATE CODE to give another system access to your local machine.

Share that one-time code with the person you wish to grant access to your computer. That person must also launch Chrome and open the page for Chrome Remote Desktop. They then click Remote Support and enter the access code under “Give Support (see Figure 10). To start the session, click the Connect button. On your machine (the host), you’ll get a popup box requesting your permission to complete the link. Click Share, and the connection is established.

Figure 10. Download paint x for mac. A one-time access code lets others connect to your host system. Denon heos deezer hifi.

The process for setting up and using Chrome Remote Desktop on a Mac or Linux machine is essentially the same as for Windows. To use Chrome Remote Desktop on a mobile device, download the app from the Apple App Store (iPhones and iPads) or, for Androids, from Google Play. Open the app and sign in with your Google account. You’ll then see the names of your host computer(s). Tap the name of the machine you wish to access.

Lance Whitney is a freelance technology reporter and former IT professional. He’s written for CNET, TechRepublic, PC Magazine, and other publications. He’s authored a book on Windows and another about LinkedIn.

Best of the Lounge

Da Boss woody has given his stamp of — if not approval — at least assent on September’s updates. At this point, they’re safe enough to install. Fellow Loungers report no major issues on their PCs.

And a couple of forum members are happy to note that the updates were flawless — on their Windows 8.1 machines.

Distance Learning

Kindergarten teacher Kendra Capen gave a first-hand view of this new era in Internet schooling. Forum members contributed their thoughts on the difficulties of distance learning. How are you coping with this challenging task?

Windows 10

Patch Lady Susan Bradley posted a link to a tweet by SwiftOnSecurity, who asked that deceptively simple question. Forum MVP Ascaris responded with a lengthy list of desirable changes to Microsoft’s pre-eminent OS. Do you agree? Tell us what sort of Windows you’d like to see.

Apple

MVP Nathan Parker gives us the highlights of the recent Apple virtual conference. September is always an interesting and eventful month for Apple aficionados.

Security

Da Boss woody points us to an Ars Technica article about new peril when paying to recover your encrypted data — fines from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This truly adds insult to injury.

Google Chrome Mouse

Windows 2004

When Plus member WSlavoro‘s HP installed Win10 2004, system performance went severely south. Rolling back to the previous version was one recommendation. But the culprit wasn’t Windows … it was out-of-date backup software.

Linux

MVP Microfix is looking for input on packaging formats Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage. Traktor s2 mk3 rekordbox. Which do you use?

If you’re not already a Lounge member, use the quick registration form to sign up for free.

Publisher: AskWoody LLC (woody@askwoody.com); editor: Tracey Capen (editor@askwoody.com).

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