All your Remote Desktop connections one click away in the system tray — plus Get Online Help in two clicks.

Aloaha RDPLauncher (tray name: Aloaha RDP System Tray) is a small Windows tray application from Aloaha Limited that lists your .rdp Remote Desktop connections in the system tray, stores the logon encrypted with Windows DPAPI, and starts the Windows Remote Desktop client with one click. It also joins CodeB / Aloaha video meetings in a window of its own with screen sharing and consent-gated remote support, and includes Get Online Help — a 10-digit help code the user reads to a helper who takes control after the user's consent.

Free for private use. Commercial use requires a licence — please contact info@aloaha.com. There is no licence-key dialog in the program; it just runs.

There is no installer. Download RDPLauncher.zip, extract the files anywhere you like (Documents, a shared folder, a USB stick — the location does not matter), and double-click RDPLauncher.exe. The Aloaha RDP System Tray icon appears in the notification area next to the Windows clock. Right-click it to see the menu. That is the whole install — no administrator rights, no DLLs, no service, no reboot. Optionally right-click the tray icon and tick Start with Windows so it launches automatically at your next sign-in. To remove it later, close the tray and delete the folder. See section 9 for the full walk-through.

No. RDPLauncher itself does not need administrator rights at any step. On Windows 10 or 11 the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is usually already present; if it happens to be missing, RDPLauncher offers Microsoft's WebView2 download page and WebView2 also installs without administrator rights (into your user profile). Administrator rights are only needed if you (or an admin) want to write machine-wide (HKLM) settings such as GlobalRDPFolder or MasterRDPFolder.

RDPLauncher ships as a plain executable, not an MSI. For fleet deployment, copy RDPLauncher.exe to a shared folder and add a shortcut (or a scripted registry value) to the user's Autostart via group policy or your MDM. Machine-wide options live under HKLM\Software\Aloaha\SysTray and HKLM\Software\Aloaha\CSP; per-user options live under HKCU\Software\Aloaha. There is no service to install and nothing to run as SYSTEM.

For the remote-support scenario, yes — Get Online Help works the same way: a short code, one click to share, a helper who takes control. Differences: control only ever starts with the user's permission (an explicit Allow click, or a code the user created and gave out themselves), the meeting server is configurable and can be self-hosted, and RDPLauncher has no licence-key dialog, no telemetry and needs no administrator rights. There is no 'unattended access' feature: someone must be at the PC to share the screen.

Right-click the Aloaha RDP System Tray icon and pick Get Online Help. A window opens with a 10-digit code (e.g. 301 404 9694) and Copy code / Copy link buttons. The share picker opens already on Entire Screen; click Share. Read the number to your helper. They type it into Aloaha RDP System Tray » Online Meeting… (spaces and dashes are ignored) or open the Copy link in any browser. They take control after you clicked Share. Stop or Ctrl+Alt+F12 ends the session at any time. When you close the window the number stops working.

It works like a room address and a password in one. Whoever knows the number can see and control your screen until you close the Get Online Help window. So give it only to the person actually helping you, and never to someone who called you unexpectedly. You get a fresh number every time you open the window. Once your helper is in, click Lock room to keep everyone else out; the window always shows who is in the room so you notice a stranger.

The 10-digit code is the room number for Get Online Help — it identifies the meeting room the helper joins. The 6-character access code is an optional extra: if you turn it on in the Join Meeting dialog, a helper who requests control with that code skips the Allow dialog. You can use either on its own, or together; you can also embed the access code into the invite link (fragment-only, so it never reaches server logs) for one-link remote help, but then anyone who has that link takes control while the code is valid — send it only to your helper and prefer the once setting.

No. Control only starts after you click Allow — or with a short access code you created yourself and gave out. A bar on every screen always says who has control, and Stop or Ctrl+Alt+F12 ends the session instantly. Control also ends automatically when you stop sharing, lock Windows, leave the meeting, after 10 minutes without input, and after 30 minutes at most.

No. The helper can join from a normal browser — they type the 10-digit code into the meeting page, or open the Copy link you send them. Only the person being helped needs Aloaha RDP System Tray, because that is what handles the consent dialog and OS-level input on the controlled PC.

So the helper can only click what they can see. If you share a single window or a browser tab, remote control stays disabled — that way sensitive content in other windows never becomes reachable by accident. In Get Online Help the share picker already opens on Entire Screen, and the window shows an orange warning when only a window is shared.

No. Windows does not allow a normal program to operate windows that run with administrator rights (for example UAC prompts) or the lock screen. If your task needs elevation, you dismiss the UAC yourself; the helper waits and then continues.

Until you stop it. It also ends automatically after 10 minutes without any remote input, and after 30 minutes at most. The helper can simply ask again if more time is needed.

Yes. The shared screen is scaled to fit the helper's window and their clicks land exactly where they point, at any display scaling on either side. Small text can be hard for the helper to read on a small screen; full-screen (F11) in the helper's browser helps.

Yes. RDPLauncher is per-monitor DPI aware and its windows are sharp at every scaling factor. The scaling is picked up from Windows at sign-in; after changing scaling, sign out and back in so all windows re-open at the new size.

In the RDP folder — by default Documents\RDPFiles for each user, or a folder set via the registry value RDPFolder. Administrators can add a machine-wide GlobalRDPFolder and a read-only MasterRDPFolder. The tray menu combines all three.

No. Passwords are encrypted with Windows DPAPI for your Windows user on your PC. Nobody else, and no other PC, can decrypt them. The .rdp files remain standard mstsc-format files so Remote Desktop can still open them directly.

No. RDPLauncher needs no administrator rights for any function — the program never asks for elevation. Administrator rights are only needed if you want to write machine-wide (HKLM) settings such as GlobalRDPFolder or MasterRDPFolder.

Yes. RDPLauncher runs one instance per user session and is safe to use on Windows Server 2016+, Remote Desktop Session Host and RDS environments. Administrators typically point every user to a read-only MasterRDPFolder for the standard set of connections, and let users add their own in the per-user RDPFolder.

Yes. RDPLauncher runs on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2016 or later, 32-bit and 64-bit. It needs .NET Framework 4.8 (part of Windows 10 / 11) and, for meetings and Get Online Help, the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (also part of Windows 10 / 11; if missing, RDPLauncher offers Microsoft's download page and WebView2 installs without administrator rights).

Yes. The zip contains a single RDPLauncher.exe and a readme — unpack anywhere and run. There is no installer, no DLLs, no admin rights required and no service. Settings live in the registry under HKCU\Software\Aloaha\SysTray (per user) and, if an administrator wrote them, HKLM\Software\Aloaha\SysTray.

The publisher (Aloaha Limited) is based in Malta (EU). The default meeting server phone.codeb.io runs on the CodeB Sovereign Communications stack. Organisations that need full data residency can self-host their own CodeB tenant on Windows Server + IIS and point RDPLauncher at it. RDPLauncher itself writes no logs and sends no telemetry.

Yes. Copy RDPLauncher.exe to a shared folder and add a shortcut to the Start menu or Autostart of the image; the tray reads user-specific settings under HKCU and machine-wide settings under HKLM\Software\Aloaha\SysTray. Point every user at a read-only MasterRDPFolder that your admin scripts fill with the standard set of connections.

Yes. The whole meetings / Get Online Help side is optional. Users who only want one-click RDP never need to open a meeting; the tray menu, DPAPI-stored logons and the RDP folders work on their own.

For Remote Desktop, the standard RDP port to your servers (3389 by default; a custom port per connection is set in Edit RDP Hosts, e.g. host:3390). For meetings and Get Online Help, standard HTTPS (443) to the meeting server plus WebRTC media (UDP + TCP, TURN over 443 as a fallback) to that server's ICE endpoints. No incoming ports.

No. RDPLauncher writes no log files and sends no telemetry. It connects to the meeting server (phone.codeb.io by default, configurable) only while a Get Online Help or Online Meeting window is open. Remote Desktop connects to the servers you choose. After about 30 days of use it opens www.codeb.io or www.aloaha.com in the browser about once a week — nothing else.

Yes. Settings, registry values and .rdp files stay compatible with older RDPLauncher builds, and a backup zip of all configuration is created automatically on first start of a new version at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Aloaha_Limited\RDPLauncher.exe_StrongName_…\. Just replace RDPLauncher.exe with the older build.

Set the corresponding value in HKCU\Software\Aloaha\SysTray (per user) or HKLM\Software\Aloaha\SysTray (machine-wide) to "0". "1" shows the entry, "0" hides it. See section 7 for the full list. You can also hide the tray icon itself (trayvisible) and the Exit entry (exitvisible) for kiosk use.

Aloaha RDPLauncher itself is not a smart-card product. The .rdp files it writes contain the standard mstsc option to redirect smart cards into the Remote Desktop session (redirectsmartcards:i:1), which is the same behaviour the built-in Remote Desktop client offers. If you need Aloaha's smart-card-based sign-in, that is a separate product line.

The tray menu Help opens a built-in HTML manual. For anything beyond that, email info@aloaha.com or call the numbers in section 11. Support hours are CET, Monday to Friday.