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Everything Utly Remote does, in the order you meet it.

Install

Installer (remote-setup.exe): installs for all users, adds the host service, and starts the app in the tray at sign-in. Windows 10, 11, Server 2019 and later. Silent install for deployment: remote-setup.exe /S.

Portable (remote.exe): nothing is installed; keep the file anywhere and run it. Everything works except what needs the host service (the logon screen, UAC prompts, Ctrl+Alt+Del, restarts). Install the service later from an administrator prompt with remote.exe --install-service.

Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008 R2 to 2012 R2: remote-win7.exe, a native build of the same program. See Windows 7.

Every download is signed. While the signing certificate is the development one, Windows SmartScreen shows a warning on first run; the signing page says what the signature proves and when the public certificate arrives.

Connect to a machine

The home screen shows your ID and a field to type another. Type the other machine’s nine-digit ID (or the name you gave it) and press Connect. The other side sees an accept card with your ID, whether it has seen your device key before, and four words. Both of you should see the same four words; say them aloud if you are on a call. The host picks what you may do — keyboard and mouse, clipboard, audio, files — and can change any of it while the session runs.

A session window opens per monitor. View all shows every screen at once; Send files opens a panel that browses the host’s files and accepts drag and drop. End on either side closes everything.

Let someone in

When a request arrives, the accept card appears. Check the ID and the words, choose the permissions, then Accept — or Decline, or let the minute run out. During the session a strip at the top of your screen shows who is connected with switches for each permission and an End button.

Unattended access

Settings › Security › Unattended access sets a password. Someone who knows it can connect without you clicking Accept — unless Ask on screen even when the password matches is on, in which case the password only proves who they are and you still accept. The password is proved with OPAQUE: it never leaves your PC, and the server relays bytes that reveal nothing about it. Five wrong guesses lock that ID out for thirty minutes.

Before the first password, the app shows a warning about phone scams. Read it; it is the one grant a scammer needs.

The host service

With the service installed, the host side runs as a Windows service, so it can show the logon screen, answer UAC prompts, send Ctrl+Alt+Del and survive a restart. The service is installed by the installer, or with remote.exe --install-service from an administrator prompt, and removed with --uninstall-service. Settings › About shows whether it is running.

Address book and account

Home › Address book stores names for the machines you reach. Without an account it lives on this PC only.

An account (Settings › Account) is optional. It needs an email, a password, and an authenticator app: sign-up shows a code to scan and eight recovery codes to keep. Signing in on a new device needs the password and one second factor — approval on a device that is already signed in, a code from the authenticator, or a recovery code. Once signed in, the names in your address book follow you to every device, sealed with a key derived from your password; the server stores ciphertext and never sees an ID. There is no password reset: the server holds nothing that could perform one.

Session log

The Session log tab lists every session, permission change, declined request, failed unattended login, lockout and file transfer on this PC. Each line carries a hash of the line before it, so an edited or deleted line breaks the chain and the log says so.

Updates

The app checks for a new version half a minute after it starts and every six hours, downloads it in the background, verifies its signature, and waits for you to click Restart & update in Settings › About. The beta channel gets builds first. The Windows 7 build does not self-update: download the current remote-win7.exe and replace the file.

Troubleshooting

• “Connecting — retrying” on the home screen: the app cannot reach the broker at broker.utly.dev (TLS on port 443). Check the network or a proxy.
• The picture never arrives: the two machines could not find a path to each other and the relay is not reachable either. The relay listens on turn.utly.dev port 3478 (UDP and TCP); a firewall that blocks it blocks the session.
• Slow or blocky picture: the connection is going through the relay or a poor link; the quality adapts to what the link carries. A wired connection on the host helps most.
• The other side sees an “unknown publisher” prompt when installing the service on Windows 7: that machine needs Windows update KB4474419 (SHA-2 support). The app says so on its ID window.
• Where things are: Settings › About shows the data folder and the log file. Send the log file with a bug report — it holds no passwords and no session content.

Uninstall

Settings › Apps › Utly Remote › Uninstall removes the program and the service. The data folder (Settings › About) keeps the identity key, pins, address book and log until you delete it; deleting it means the machine gets a new ID next time.