Download PC Remote

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit (x64): the program needs Windows 10 or newer. It is tested on Windows 10 Pro 22H2; on Windows 11 it has not been tested yet. There is no build for 32-bit Windows or for ARM.
• Administrator rights to install, update or uninstall: Windows asks for them once each time.
• No graphics card required: the program uses one for capture and H.264 when it can and manages with the processor when it cannot. Nothing else to install either, no frameworks, no runtimes.
• Blacking out the remote screen needs Windows 10 version 2004 or newer on that computer.
• Over the internet, the computer you connect to needs a password of at least 12 characters. In a local network the password is optional, but without one anybody on that network can connect.

Check the file before you run it

Open PowerShell in the folder you saved the file to and run:

Get-FileHash .\PCRemoteSetup-a4f1f920b748.exe -Algorithm SHA256

The Hash it prints must be exactly a4f1f920b748e4a1967402b0744118f833873855b9e507e6b0924a585505020c (capital or small letters do not matter). If even one character differs, do not run the file: download it again from this page. Without PowerShell, the same check is certutil -hashfile PCRemoteSetup-a4f1f920b748.exe SHA256.

“Windows protected your PC”

The file is not signed with a code-signing certificate, and Windows SmartScreen warns about a new program without one. That is expected. Once you have checked the SHA-256:

1. Run the file. In the blue window “Windows protected your PC”, click More info.
2. Click Run anyway.
3. Windows asks whether an app from an unknown publisher may make changes to your device: answer Yes. That is the administrator rights the installation needs.

On Windows 11 with Smart App Control turned on, Windows may block an unsigned program outright, without a “Run anyway” button. The program has not been tested with Smart App Control.

Installing

1. Run the file and allow the administrator rights.
2. One window asks for a folder (C:\Program Files\PC Remote by default; there is no need to change it) and for the way the program will run. Two boxes add shortcuts to the desktop and to the Start menu for everybody on the computer.
3. Click Install. The program puts itself in the folder, adds its firewall rules, appears in the list of installed apps and starts: a blue icon appears in the notification area by the clock.
4. To reach the computer over the internet, right-click that icon, open Settings and set a password of at least 12 characters. The computer then connects to the relay, and its nine-digit number appears at the bottom of the main window.

The service runs on behalf of the system, which is what lets it into the lock and sign-in screens. For the same reason the setup puts a service only in a folder ordinary users cannot write to: Program Files is fine, while a folder in the root of the drive, Downloads or the desktop are refused. Without the service, any folder will do.

Firewall and ports

The setup adds two inbound rules for the installed program and removes them when it is uninstalled. Their names are in Russian, whatever the language of Windows:

Both rules let in the installed program only, on every network profile (domain, private and public) and from any address. On a network you do not trust, set a password, or do not leave the program running there.

Over the internet nothing has to be opened: the computer connects out to the relay itself (remote.vareyko.com, port 8890), so the router needs no port forwarding. The program works over IPv4 only.

Updating

Download the new file and run it, nothing more. It finds the installed program, stops it, replaces it and starts it the way it ran before: a service stays a service. If the new version does not start, the previous one is put back. Running the same build changes nothing, and an older build asks before it replaces a newer one. The details go to %ProgramData%\PC Remote\setup.log.

In Settings → Apps the version shows as 2026.10.05.0923: the date and time (UTC) of the sources it was built from.

Uninstalling

Settings → Apps → PC Remote → Uninstall, or the downloaded file with a switch:

.\PCRemoteSetup-a4f1f920b748.exe -uninstall

Everything the program left behind goes: the program with its logs, the service, autostart, the shortcuts, its firewall rules (and the ones Windows made from its “Allow access” window, where it finds them) and temporary files. Only the computer's key, its number, the settings and the list of known computers stay in %ProgramData%\PC Remote, so that a reinstalled computer is recognised as the same one. To erase those as well:

.\PCRemoteSetup-a4f1f920b748.exe -uninstall -purge

After that the computer gets a new number when installed again, and the others will have to meet it anew.

Without windows: switches for scripts

Exit codes: 0 done, or the same build is already installed; 1 failed, and an update put the previous version back; 2 nothing is installed; 5 administrator rights are needed and -quiet forbids asking for them.

Requirements

• macOS 13 or later, on a Mac with Apple Silicon or with an Intel processor: the package holds one program for both. The program is tested on macOS 26.3.1 on Apple Silicon; on Intel Macs and on other versions of macOS it has not been tested yet. The installer and the uninstaller have so far been tried only in a test sandbox.
• An administrator's password, to install and to uninstall.
• A connection password of at least 12 characters, which the setup assistant asks for first. On a Mac it is not a convenience: the macOS lock screen accepts input that arrives over the network, and only the connection password keeps strangers away from it. Until it is set, the Mac cannot be reached over the internet, while anybody on the same network can connect.

Check the file before you open it

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and run this, changing the path if you saved the file somewhere other than Downloads:

shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/PCRemote-mac-ef0237ff57a5.pkg

The line it prints must begin with exactly ef0237ff57a5e19e99cbbabd148d5722a04d9b7a9bb68fed2b7f15f4e898e1f4. If even one character differs, do not open the file: download it again from this page. The uninstaller is checked the same way: for uninstall-mac.sh the sum is 2b496b59064f4ac124220b87986b6dcf1452313ba4be22e8a470fff5c5bc6f19.

When macOS will not open the package

The package is not signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and not notarized by Apple, so macOS does not open it with a double-click: that is how it treats any app or installer package from the internet that Apple has not checked. That is expected. Once you have checked the SHA-256:

On macOS 15 and later:

1. Double-click the package. macOS says it was not opened: click Done, not Move to Trash.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll down to Security. Next to the line about the package, click Open Anyway. The button is there for about an hour after the attempt.
3. Confirm that you want to open it and enter your login password. The installer opens.

On macOS 12–14 it is shorter: in Finder, Control-click the package (or right-click it), choose Open, then Open again in the warning.

Or install it from Terminal; then none of this is needed, and the installer prints its steps right there:

sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/PCRemote-mac-ef0237ff57a5.pkg -target /

Installing

1. Go through the installer: Continue, Install, and an administrator's password. It puts PC Remote in Applications, and stops a copy of the program that is already running, if there is one.
2. The installer does not turn sharing on: until a connection password is set on this Mac, it sets up no service, and the Mac stays off the network until you open the app.
3. Open Applications → PC Remote. The setup assistant opens by itself: see the next section.

The installer's own windows are in Russian for now, and so are the reasons PC Remote gives in macOS's permission prompts and the uninstaller's messages. The program itself speaks English and Russian: it follows the language of macOS, or the choice in its settings.

First start: the setup assistant and permissions

macOS gives a permission only to the program that asks for it, and only when a person says yes, so the installer cannot do this part. The setup assistant walks you through it:

1. Connection password, at least 12 characters. Three or four unrelated words in a row make the easiest strong one.
2. macOS permissions, a row each. Screen Recording (in System Settings the list is called Screen & System Audio Recording) gives the other side the picture and the sound; without it a placeholder goes out instead of the screen. Accessibility lets the other side's mouse and keyboard work here; without it they do nothing. Each Grant button opens the right pane of System Settings: turn PC Remote on there and come back, and the assistant notices by itself. What you grant is picked up only when the program starts, so afterwards press Restart PC Remote in the assistant. The third row, Local Network (macOS 15 and later), is macOS's own question, asked the first time the program looks for computers nearby: answer Allow, or computers on your network are simply not found, without any error. If it was refused, the row's Open button leads to the switch (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network).
3. Start at login: tick Open at login to set up the service that starts PC Remote every time you log in. On a fresh install it is off, and the box always shows the real state of the service. Without it the Mac can be reached only while you run the app yourself.

The program lives as an icon in the menu bar. Closing its window does not stop sharing; Quit PC Remote in the icon's menu does (⌘Q and Quit in the Dock only hide the window). The assistant comes back with Setup assistant… in the same menu.

macOS 15 and later ask again from time to time whether PC Remote may go on recording the screen. The question is a window on the Mac's own screen and waits for an answer there: allow it again.

Shutting the Mac down from another computer needs one more permission. The first time, macOS asks on the Mac itself whether PC Remote may control “loginwindow”, and the Mac shuts down only once somebody allows it there. If that was refused, tccutil reset AppleEvents com.vareyko.pcremote.mac in Terminal brings the question back.

How it differs on the Mac

• It works while you are logged in. The service starts when you log in to the account it was set up for, and lives inside that session. After a restart or a log-out the Mac cannot be reached until that account logs in at the Mac itself: there is no remote sign-in, unlike the Windows service.
• A locked Mac can be unlocked remotely. While you are logged in, the real lock screen comes through, and with Accessibility granted the account password typed on the other computer unlocks the Mac. That is why the connection password matters so much here.
• No blackout. Since macOS 15 the system does not let a program keep its own window out of screen capture, and that is what the blackout is made of, so the Mac version has none.
• The people at the Mac can see it is shared. While its screen is being recorded, macOS shows a mark in the menu bar, and no program can hide it.
• One monitor at a time. Watching a Mac, you pick one of its monitors: the stitched picture of all of them is made by the Windows version only. H.264 comes from macOS itself (VideoToolbox).

Network and ports

The same as on Windows: UDP 8888 to be found on the local network and TCP 8889–8892 for control, screen, files and sound, all incoming. Over the internet the Mac only connects out to the relay (remote.vareyko.com, port 8890), and only once a connection password is set, so the router needs no port forwarding. IPv4 only.

The package leaves the macOS firewall alone. If you have turned it on, let PC Remote accept incoming connections there; the relay connection is outgoing and does not need it.

Updating

Download the new package and open it the same way; there is no need to quit anything first. The installer stops the program, replaces it and keeps the settings and the computer's key, so the Mac keeps its number. If a connection password is set, the installer sets up the service and starts it itself, even if start at login was off.

After every update the permissions have to be granted again: screen recording and Accessibility for certain, and Local Network and the shutdown permission may need it too. macOS remembers them by the program's signature, and without an Apple certificate the signature changes with every build. The switches in System Settings may still look on. Open PC Remote: the setup assistant opens by itself and shows what is missing.

The program does not show its version yet: Finder's Get Info says 1.0 for every build. The version on this page, 2026.10.09.0652, is the date and time (UTC) of the sources the package was built from.

Uninstalling

The package does not install an uninstaller (anything added to the app would break its signature), so it is a separate file, uninstall-mac.sh, checked like the package. Download it and run it in Terminal:

sudo bash ~/Downloads/uninstall-mac.sh

It stops the program, removes its service from every account on this Mac, deletes PC Remote from Applications along with the installer's record of it, and then asks whether to delete the settings too (the question is in Russian: y deletes them, Enter keeps them). At the end it lists what it actually removed. To answer in advance:

sudo bash ~/Downloads/uninstall-mac.sh --keep-settings
sudo bash ~/Downloads/uninstall-mac.sh --purge

--keep-settings leaves ~/Library/Application Support/PC Remote, with the computer's key, so that a reinstalled Mac is recognised under the same number. --purge deletes it and the log as well: installed again, the Mac gets a new number, and the others will have to meet it anew.

The script cannot remove the PC Remote lines in Screen & System Audio Recording and in Accessibility: take them off with the minus button under each list in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Terms

Free for personal use. Commercial use on request.

For your own computers, PC Remote costs nothing and asks for no account. If you want to use it in a business or for clients, write a couple of words about the task at vareyko.com/contact, and we will agree on the terms.