Remote desktop · Windows, macOS, Linux

Keep your computers close.
Keep your data closer.

Lanyard puts the computers you own on any screen you have: a browser, your phone, even the car. It connects straight to them over your own network, with no relay in between and no account to make.

Download Lanyard How it connects

Free
No account
Nothing in the cloud

One programA single file on the computer. No drivers, no installer needed.
Any browserPhones, tablets, laptops, even a games console.
Up to 165 fpsAs fast as the computer's own display refreshes.
Never on the internetOnly your network, or your own tailnet, can connect.

Straight from your device to your computer

Most remote desktops send your screen through a company's servers. Lanyard doesn't have any. Your devices talk to each other directly.

Your phone, laptop or car

Home network or your tailnet No relay · encrypted

Your PC or Mac

Run it on your computer

One small program, no installer needed. It prints its address and a one-time PIN. Install it as a service to reach the sign-in screen and admin prompts too.
Open it anywhere at home

Any modern browser on your network can connect with the PIN. Install Lanyard's certificate from /setup once per device and the browser never warns again.
Take it on the road

With Tailscale, your computers stay reachable from anywhere, still without a server in the middle. Lanyard can even wake them up first.

lanrd.exe

PS> .\lanrd.exe

  Lanyard 1.2.7 - LAN remote desktop

  Open one of these in a browser on your LAN (other networks are refused):
    https://192.168.1.10:8443

  New PIN: 482917   (shown once; change it with: lanrd -set-pin <new>)

  No certificate warnings, and the iPad home-screen app: open
    https://192.168.1.10:8443/setup
  on each device and install Lanyard's local certificate authority.
  …

  Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Fast enough to play on

Built for real work and real games, not just checking on a machine now and then.

Low latency

Hardware video on NVIDIA, Intel and AMD graphics, at up to your display's refresh rate. Frames never pile up, so a slow moment on Wi-Fi doesn't turn into lag you have to wait out.

H.264 · H.265 · 60–165 fps

Sharp text

For desktop work, Lanyard sends only what changed, then re-sharpens it the moment the screen settles. Auto mode switches to video when things start moving.

changed regions only · Tiles, Video or Auto

Game controllers

Plug a controller into your phone or laptop and your PC sees an Xbox controller. Steam Big Picture from the couch.

up to four · Xbox, PlayStation, Switch Pro

Sign-in screens and prompts

Unlock, sign in after a reboot, and click admin prompts from wherever you are.

as a service · Ctrl+Alt+Del included

Wake on LAN

Computer asleep or switched off? Lanyard's apps can wake it, even when you're away from home, and connect as soon as it answers.

from home or away

Files, clipboard and sound

Drag files both ways, copy and paste across, and hear what the computer plays.

sound 30–60 ms behind

Every monitor

Switch between displays, follow your cursor from one to the next, or spread them across your own screens.

one, follow or all

No monitor needed

A mini PC in a cupboard still gets a screen to share, at whatever size you like.

virtual display on Windows · headless on Linux

Made for touch

A real trackpad mode, a shortcut-key strip and on-screen drive controls for phones and tablets.

Trackpad or Touch

Reach it from anywhere, without opening it to everyone

Lanyard never accepts connections from the internet. To use it on the road, put your computers and devices on your own Tailscale network and turn it on with one switch.

No certificate to install. Lanyard gets a trusted certificate for the computer's tailnet name and keeps it renewed.
Your own name, if you like. Serve it as pc.example.com, with nothing opened up to the internet.
Tailnet only. On shared Wi-Fi, hide Lanyard from the local network entirely.
Still LAN speed at home. Tailscale goes straight across your network when you're in the house.

PS> lanrd.exe -install -tailscale

Built for your network, and only your network

Lanyard is a door into your computer, so it's careful about who comes through it, and about what it installs on itself.

Who can connect: Only devices on your own network, or your tailnet. Everything else is dropped before it can say hello.; private address ranges · dropped before TLS
Encryption: HTTPS, always. Lanyard's own certificate can vouch only for your computers, never for any other website, even if it leaked.; name-constrained local CA
Sign-in: A PIN of at least six characters. After five wrong tries, each lockout lasts longer than the last.; PBKDF2-SHA256
Sessions: You stay signed in for 12 hours, through restarts and updates, and the computer keeps only a hash of each session.; HttpOnly · SameSite=Strict
Updates: Your computers install only releases signed with a key built into Lanyard, so not even the download server can push anything to them.; Ed25519 signatures
No middleman: There's no Lanyard account and no relay. Your screen goes from your computer to your device, and nowhere else.; no Lanyard servers anywhere

Every screen you own

Computers you connect to

WindowsReady
macOS 13 Ventura and laterReady
Linux (X11, or headless)Beta

Screens you connect from

Any modern browserReady
Android appReady
Windows appBeta
iPhone and iPad appComing
Android Auto, while parkedTesting

Download

Start with the computer you want to reach. Then open it from a browser, or get an app for your phone or PC.

Windows lanrd.exe · 10 and 11, x64 macOS lanrd · Apple silicon and Intel Linux lanrd · x86-64, X11 or headless

Linux on Arm: lanrd for arm64.

Apps for watching

Android APK now · Google Play soon Windows viewer lanrd-windows.zip

Lanyard updates itself once it's installed. Each release is signed, and your computers check the signature before they install it.

Good to know

Do I need to install anything on my phone or tablet?

No. Open the computer's address in the browser and type the PIN. Installing Lanyard's certificate from /setup once per device removes the certificate warning, and the apps add game controllers and waking the computer, but neither is required.

Can I use it over the internet?

Not directly, by design: Lanyard drops every connection that doesn't come from your own network. Put your computers and devices on a Tailscale network and start Lanyard with -tailscale, and you can reach them from anywhere, privately.

Can I control admin prompts and the sign-in screen?

Yes, on Windows. Install Lanyard as a service with lanrd.exe -install from an administrator terminal. Then you can click admin prompts, unlock the PC, sign in after a reboot and send Ctrl+Alt+Del. On Linux, the service shows the login screen too.

Is it good for games?

Yes. Video mode encodes on the graphics card, the frame rate follows high-refresh displays, game mode locks the pointer for mouse-look, and controllers on your device show up on the PC as Xbox controllers.

Does it work on Wayland?

Not yet. On Linux, Lanyard serves X11 desktops, or a headless desktop it starts itself. Wayland is next for the Linux version.

I forgot the PIN. Now what?

Set a new one on the computer with lanrd -set-pin <new> (as administrator, or with sudo on Linux, when it's installed as a service). It restarts the service for you.

Keep your computers close.Keep your data closer.