Terminal, Files & Clipboard

Beyond screen control, LCXL Remote Desk combines WebRTC data-channel features with a separately authenticated remote terminal.

Under a shared access code

When you connect by redeeming an access code (a device or support code) rather than as the device owner, the terminal, file and clipboard capabilities below are subject to that code's capability ceiling, the host's global access settings, and live approval — not automatically available.

Remote Terminal

A built-in xterm.js terminal supports full shell interactions over its own authenticated WebSocket, separate from the WebRTC data channels. Use it for command-line work without leaving the browser session.

The terminal displays an LCXL Remote Desk welcome banner while connecting. After the host confirms that the terminal session has started, closing or reloading the page triggers the browser's leave confirmation because disconnecting ends that remote shell and any processes running inside it. The shell-selection page and a terminal that has already closed do not trigger this prompt.

The Terminal Copilot side panel can be widened or narrowed by dragging its left edge. Its conversation follows new streaming text only while the reader remains at the bottom; after the reader scrolls up, a down-arrow button returns to the latest content instead of forcibly moving the current view.

Copilot renders both streaming and completed assistant prose as GitHub-flavored Markdown, including headings, lists, code, and tables. Raw HTML is ignored and model-supplied image URLs are not loaded.

File Management

Manage files on the remote device directly from the browser:

• Upload files to the remote machine.
• Download files back to the controller.
• Delete files, with a recycle-bin mechanism for recoverable deletions.

A transfer the host refuses — file transfer is off in its security settings, or the owner declined the prompt — is reported as a refusal on the transfer row rather than sitting at 0%. If the host stops responding partway through, the transfer is abandoned after 30 seconds and can be retried.

Uploading over a file that already exists replaces it, and only ever in one step. While the upload runs, the bytes go to a temporary .<name>.<id>.part file next to the destination; the destination itself is untouched until the whole file has arrived and reached stable storage, at which point the temporary file takes its name. So an upload that is cancelled, runs out of room or loses its connection costs nothing — the file that was already there is still the file that is there, and the temporary one is removed. Two transfers uploading to the same path at once would each replace the other's result, so the second one is refused rather than accepted.

When file transfers are unavailable

Browsing and deleting travel over the signaling connection, while the file bytes themselves need a WebRTC data channel. The two are established independently, so a device the browser cannot reach over WebRTC — most often because the TURN relay is unreachable — still lists its files: only uploads and downloads are withdrawn, and a banner says why.

The banner also carries the connection diagnostics behind that verdict: which ICE servers the server advertised, how many candidates of each type the browser managed to gather, and where negotiation stopped. A relay server in the list with zero relay candidates gathered means the browser cannot reach the relay, which is worth passing on to whoever operates it — the panel's copy button produces exactly that summary. TURN credentials are never part of it.

Mapped network drives on a Windows service host

A host running as the Windows system service browses files from an elevated account in a different logon session than the desktop user, and Windows scopes mapped network drives to a logon session. Drive letters the user mapped in Explorer are therefore missing from the drive list. Reach those locations by their UNC path (\\server\share) instead, or map them for both sessions by setting EnableLinkedConnections to 1 and restarting the machine.

The file manager says so on the drive-list page when the host reports itself as a service host — it asks the host, so the note appears when browsing remotely through a signaling server or a manager, not only when the browser and the host are the same machine.

Clipboard Sync

Bidirectional synchronization for text clipboards keeps copy/paste seamless between the controller and the remote device.

System Audio

When requested by the controller and allowed by the host's independent system-audio permission, remote playback is captured and sent live to the controller as Opus. It is separate from controller-microphone uplink and is not recorded or persisted by this feature. See Remote Control & Streaming.