Install FreeRDP Web as an app

Installed as an Isolated Web App (IWA), FreeRDP connects to your RDP server with a direct TCP connection: no gateway, no plugin. You do not need it: as a normal web page the client works too, through a WebSocket gateway (Safety and tunnels).

Your browser right now

1. Use Chrome or Edge on Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS

Isolated Web Apps are a Chromium feature. Firefox and Safari can use the web version through a gateway, but not the app.

2. Turn on Isolated Web Apps (one time)

Copy each address into the address bar, set the option to Enabled, then click Relaunch. (Web pages are not allowed to open chrome:// links themselves.)

chrome://flags/#enable-isolated-web-apps

chrome://flags/#enable-isolated-web-app-dev-mode

Developer mode lets Chrome install unsigned apps from a URL. Only install apps from servers you trust; you can turn the flags off again afterwards (installed apps keep working until you remove them).

3. Install the app

1. Open chrome://web-app-internals Copy
2. Under Isolated Web Apps, find Install IWA via Dev Mode Proxy and enter this address:

   Copy
3. Click Install. Chrome adds FreeRDP Web to the Start menu / Launchpad / app list and, on Windows, to the desktop.

Updating: when this site changes, open chrome://web-app-internals again and click Update next to FreeRDP Web.

4. Connect

1. Start FreeRDP Web from the desktop or Start menu, not from a browser tab. The first field then reads RDP server, and Advanced shows Direct TCP ticked.
2. Enter the RDP server as host:port (usually port 3389), your user name and password. The password is never stored.
3. Optional: tick Full screen. Hold Esc to leave full screen.

Good to know

• Servers on your own PC or LAN (localhost, 192.168.x.x) need extra permissions, which the app requests in its manifest; Chrome may ask you to allow them.
• Without developer mode, Chrome on Windows, macOS and Linux only installs IWAs pushed by an administrator through enterprise policy (from an allowlist since Chrome 143). On ChromeOS IWAs are fully supported.
• The web version (no install) is at index.html and needs a WebSocket-to-TCP gateway such as websockify next to the RDP server.

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