Installing the Server on Windows

For Windows, the documentation also guides you through the manual setup in conjunction with PM2 or the non-sucking service manager (NSSM). In our lab, I noted at this point that the software development was ahead of the documentation and that manual intervention is no longer needed on Windows.

Simply download the ZIP archive with the current setup package for Windows [6]. The setup routine installs the server components in C:\Program Files\RustDeskServer and drops shortcuts to the GUI onto the desktop and into the Start menu. Open the GUI and select Services | Start from the menubar. The server then automatically registers the hbbr and hbbs services on the system, sets their start type to Automatic , and starts the services immediately.

When first launched, the RustDesk server generates a public-private key pair for client access and stores this in C:\Program Files\RustDeskServer\bin. You need to open the file with the PUB extension and save the string it contains to configure your clients.

The server version (v1.1.8 at the time of testing) added incoming rules to the Windows firewall according to the RustDesk server's two program files. However, client access still wouldn't work. If you experience this, add incoming rules for the TCP and UDP ports mentioned previously. The server is now ready for connections, but how do the clients find their way to your server?

Bringing the Client and Server Together

Call up the advanced settings in the client interface from the three vertical dots next to the ID. For clients up to v1.1.9, select the ID/Relay Server option from the context menu. As of v1.2.0, you will find the required options in the Network area of the Settings tab.

If hbbs and hbbr are running on the same server, you just need to enter the IP address or DNS name of your server in the ID Server field. The server's public key in the Key field is also mandatory. As soon as you have accepted the settings, the status of the client in the footer of the window should change to Ready without anything else telling you that you now have your own server.

If you want to avoid the manual overhead of distributing the address and key to all users and configuring the clients, RustDesk offers several approaches to simplifying the process. The Linux server provides a shell script for Linux and a PowerShell script for Windows with the optional Go HTTP File Server on http://<your-server>:8000 (Figure 3). Both automatically install the RustDesk client on the respective platforms with default settings that match your server.

Figure 3: The RustDesk server on Linux simplifies the installation of clients with the use of preconfigured scripts.

On Windows, you can alternatively include the server and key in the file name of the portable client, which, however, leads to very long file names in excess of 80 characters. For Linux, macOS, and the mobile platforms, you have no alternative to manual configuration.

DIY Clients

Alternatively, you can compile the client software from the sources yourself. The developer documentation describes the procedure for setting up the required tools on various platforms. Without any local tools or programming knowledge, GitHub Actions [7] gives you your own client, provided you have a free GitHub account. To do this, create a fork of the RustDesk project in the GitHub web front end, enter the name or address of your server and its public key in the repository, then start a GitHub Action.

The action automatically generates client packages that contain the server and public key of your server preconfigured. However, it should be noted that the process has to make do with limited resources and can take several hours. The fork is also publicly accessible. A private repository limits the number of build processes per month, so you might have to switch to a commercial account.

Even then, however, the fields for server and key in the client configuration are visible to end users in plain text. Any user who has this information can then use your server. Only the Pro version of the server restricts access by user names and passwords.