macchina.io REMOTE Helper for Windows
macchina.io REMOTE Helper is a native Windows desktop application that integrates with the macchina.io REMOTE server web user interface in the browser and allows you to launch an external secure shell (SSH), secure file transfer (SFTP), or remote desktop (RDP or VNC) client that connects to the remote device through a secure tunnel directly from the macchina.io REMOTE web user interface.
macchina.io REMOTE Helper will work with the following client programs:
- The OpenSSH client (including SFTP) integrated in Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2019.
- WinSCP and FileZilla, as alternative SFTP clients.
- PuTTY, as an alternative SSH client.
- The Microsoft Remote Desktop client integrated in Windows (mstsc.exe).
- The RealVNC® VNC Viewer.
Installing macchina.io REMOTE Helper
Before installing macchina.io REMOTE Helper, please install the required client applications. We recommend installing the OpenSSH client programs available as an optional Windows component from Microsoft. Alternatively, for SSH, you may also use PuTTY.
To install, download the RemoteHelper.exe executable and run it. You will be prompted to install the application, which includes registering a special URI scheme (macchina-rm+wss), which will be handled by macchina.io REMOTE Helper. macchina.io REMOTE Helper will also look for the above mentioned SSH, SFTP, RDP and VNC client applications.
To complete the setup, macchina.io REMOTE Helper will show its Settings window. You can review the client applications for SSH, SFTP, RDP and VNC that macchina.io REMOTE Helper has found and change them, if desired. For example, if you want to use WinSCP as SFTP client, click the [...] Button for SFTP Client, and select the WinSCP.exe executable, which is usually located in C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP.
You can change these client applications any time later on by launching macchina.io REMOTE Helper via the Windows Start menu.
Using macchina.io REMOTE Helper
Once installed, you can click the SSH (), SFTP (), VNC and RDP () buttons or links in the macchina.io REMOTE web user interface. This will launch macchina.io REMOTE Helper on your local Windows machine, which will set up a secure tunnel between your local machine and the remote device, then launch the configured client application. It will also show you a window that allows you to specify the SSH login name (for SSH and SFTP sessions), and to specify additional command-line arguments to be passed to the client program. This can be used to specify the SSH identity file, etc.
macchina.io REMOTE Helper is currently available for Windows Desktop (Win32, Intel 64-bit) only. A macOS version will be available in the future.