Connecting back to your computer when you are away requires some configuration. Luckily, Screens Connect makes it a breeze.1
Screens Connect lets you connect to your Windows PC when you're away from home or the office. It takes care of the messy setup you need to perform on your router in order to make your Windows PC accessible outside the local network it is connected to.
While Screens Connect isn't required to use Screens, it offers some advanced features that make Screens even better:
Automatic DetectionScreens Connect uses the Bonjour protocol to locally broadcast the VNC service running on your PC so you don't have to enter the information manually.
Bundled VNC and SSH ServersThe Screens Connect for Windows installer comes with a VNC server (TightVNC) and a SSH server (freeSSHd) so everything can be installed at once. When you install Screens Connect, everything that is required will be installed as well so no need to look all over the Internet to find them!
Important! Make sure that the initial setup of your computer has been completed before your read on.
From your Windows PC, go to https://screensconnect.com/d to download the Screens Connect package. Then:
You'll find more details about configuring Screens Connect, the VNC and SSH servers in the bundled documentation, either from the button or the Screens Connect tray icon menu → Screens Connect Help.
With Screens running on your iOS device, follow these steps:
Now that you are signed in, you should see every Mac or Windows PC you've installed Screens Connect on. The antenna icon next to the name means that the Screens Connect service is enabled on that Mac or Windows PC:
The next time you connect to your Mac or Windows PC, Screens will determine if your computer is available locally. If that's not the case, Screens will query our Screens Connect server to get it's location and then connect to it. This is all seamless and you shouldn't see a difference!
If for some reason it is not possible to use Screens Connect on your Mac or PC, you can follow these instructions: