Frequently Asked Questions

If your question is not here, contact support and we will add it.

Is Office Remote Desk free?

Every workspace starts on a 7-day free trial with no card and no payment details: chat, meetings, projects, files, time tracking and remote access — with 5-minute sessions and calls, 3 projects and 100 MB uploads. After the trial it keeps working on tighter limits until you activate a licence key. If you only use remote access and never sign in to a workspace, that has its own 30-day device trial.

What exactly happens when my 7-day trial ends?

Nothing is deleted and nobody is locked out. Your chat history, files, projects, tracked hours and timesheets stay exactly as they are, and you can still read and export all of it. The limits simply tighten: 1-minute remote sessions, 1 project and 25 MB uploads. Paste a licence key into Settings → Plan and they lift immediately — for everyone in the workspace at once, with no reinstall.

Does the subscription cover my whole team?

Yes. A subscription belongs to the workspace, not to a person or a machine. Activate one licence key and every member gets the plan — on every computer they sign in on. You do not buy a key per seat or per device.

Can I reinstall to get another free trial?

No. The trial is tracked per computer on our servers, not in a file on your machine, so reinstalling (or moving the app to another folder, or clearing its data) lands you back on the same countdown. If you genuinely need more time to evaluate, ask support and we can extend it.

How do I buy and activate a licence?

Request a key on the Buy a licence page. When it arrives, open Office Remote Desk, go to Settings → Plan, paste the key and press Activate. The key covers a set number of computers; activating it on a new machine needs one of the old ones released first, which we do for you.

Do I need to open ports on my router?

No. Office Remote Desk connects peer-to-peer through NAT, and falls back to a TURN relay when a direct path is not possible.

How is my session protected?

Screen, input and meeting media are encrypted end to end with DTLS-SRTP and per-session keys negotiated by the two devices themselves. The signalling server only helps them find each other; it cannot read the session and stores none of it. Workspace data — chat, files, projects, tracked hours — is a different matter: it is stored on the server so history works everywhere, and is not end-to-end encrypted. Self-host and that server is yours.

Can I run everything on my own servers?

Yes. The signaling server, the workspace (chat, files, projects) and the TURN relay all run in one self-hosted service - see the Self-Hosted page.

Where is my team's chat and file data stored?

On the Office Remote Desk server your workspace uses (your own, if you self-host). Chat history, uploaded files, tasks and meeting details are stored there so they are available on every device and searchable. Remote sessions are different: screen, keyboard, mouse and transferred files go directly between the two devices and never pass through the server.

How do I invite my colleagues?

Create a workspace in the app, then Settings → Members & invites → Invite people. You get a link (or one link per email address) to paste into any message. Guests can be limited to a single channel, which is handy for clients and support cases.

Do free-tier session limits apply inside a workspace?

No. Members of the same workspace connect to each other without the one-minute limit or the cooldown. The limits still apply to connections between devices that are not in a workspace together.

Does it work across different operating systems?

Yes. A Windows machine can control a Mac, an Android phone can view a Linux desktop, and so on.

What happens if my internet drops mid-session?

The client keeps a heartbeat with the server and reconnects automatically when the network returns.

Can I access a computer nobody is sitting at?

Yes - set a permanent password under unattended access and install Office Remote Desk as a service.

How do I remove Office Remote Desk?

Uninstall it like any other app (Settings -> Apps on Windows). The helper service is removed with it.