User guide

From zero to controlling your PC from your phone. If something doesn't go the way this page says, write to us at soporte@pcontroller.app.

What you need
Installing PController on your PC
Updating to a new version
Linking the PC to your account
Connecting from your phone
Turning the PC on remotely
Managing your PCs, guests and links
Security: devices and sessions
Switching account or unlinking the PC
Common problems

What you need

The PC you want to control: Windows 10 or 11. That's where PController runs.
The phone (or any other device): just a browser. There's no app to install — Chrome, Safari or Firefox will do.
A PController account: creating one is free, at app.pcontroller.app, and it comes with a 7-day trial of everything in Pro. After that, the Local plan is the base licence and controls the PC inside your own WiFi network; adding Pro or Premium on top reaches it over the internet too.

Installing PController on your PC

Download the installer (PController-Setup-x.y.z.exe) from the downloads page.

Windows will say "Windows protected your PC". That's expected. The installer isn't signed with a code-signing certificate, so SmartScreen warns about anything it doesn't recognise — it hasn't detected anything. To carry on: More info → Run anyway. If you'd rather check first, every release publishes the .sha256 of the file next to the installer; you can also upload it to VirusTotal. Signing costs a few hundred dollars a year and isn't in place yet; we'd rather say so than have you meet the warning with no explanation.

Run it and follow the wizard. The first thing it asks is who to install for, and that choice decides something you can't see afterwards:

"Just for me" (recommended) — asks for no administrator rights and leaves PController available only in your Windows account.
"For all users" — asks for administrator and installs into Program Files. Pick it only if you really want PController available to every account on that PC.

Remember which one you picked. When you update you have to pick the same one: installing in the other mode leaves two copies of PController living on the same machine. We explain it under Updating to a new version.

The first time PController starts, Windows will ask whether to allow access on private networks: accept. That's what lets the phone connect inside your WiFi — if you block it, "same network" mode won't work.

When it finishes, PController starts on its own and opens My panel in your browser: a local tab (visible only from that PC) with the app's status, the linking code and incoming connections. The PController icon sits in the system tray, next to the clock.

Worth knowing: if you close the panel tab, you get it back from the tray icon → "Open my panel".

Updating to a new version

PController does not update on its own. It checks whether there's a new version and tells you in My panel with a button that takes you to the downloads page, but installing it is up to you. That's deliberate: automatic updating existed until v1.19.0, almost nobody used it, and on "for all users" installations it couldn't even work.

Open My panel (tray icon → "Open my panel"). If there's a new version you'll see a notice at the top with the version number and a Download button.

Download the installer (PController-Setup-x.y.z.exe) and run it. You'll see the SmartScreen warning again: it's the same case as the first install, because the binary still isn't signed.

⚠️ Pick the same installation mode you used the first time ("just for me" or "for all users"). If you pick the other one, the installer updates nothing: it performs a second installation in a different folder, and you end up with two PControllers fighting over the same port and showing up as two different PCs in your account.

The installer closes the running PController and replaces it. Your link, your PCs and your settings are kept. When it's done, check the version at the bottom of My panel.

Worth knowing: every release also publishes the .sha256 of the installer. If you want to check that what you downloaded arrived intact, in PowerShell: Get-FileHash .\PController-Setup-x.y.z.exe and compare it with the contents of the .sha256.

Linking the PC to your account

Linking tells PController whose PC this is. You do it once.

In My panel you'll see a 6-digit code with its QR. Scan the QR with your phone's camera, or open the link shown below the code.

Confirm in the browser with your PController account (or create it right there). Done: the PC shows up on its own in your list at app.pcontroller.app.

Code expired? The panel tells you ("The code expired. Ask for a new one to continue.") and the Ask for a new code button generates another one straight away.

Connecting from your phone

Go to app.pcontroller.app on your phone with your account. Under My PCs you'll see your PC and its status (online / off).

Tap Connect. On the Local plan you have to be on the same WiFi network as the PC. On Pro or Premium the PC also has its own internet URL (something like brave-otter-42.pcontroller.app) and you can connect from anywhere.

The first time you connect from a new browser, PController asks you to approve it: the viewer tells you to open My panel on that PC (PController icon in the system tray → "Open my panel") and approve it there, under "Devices waiting for approval". Once that's done, go in again from app.pcontroller.app on the phone — the grant has already been used, so reloading the viewer isn't enough.

Why does it ask for this? It's a protection: if someone else gets your password, they still can't control your PC from a browser you didn't approve — approving requires being physically at the PC, not just having the account. No email is sent for this step. If you invite someone else (see below), their first connection also stays pending until you approve it from the PC's panel.

Once inside the viewer: you move the cursor by sliding a finger, tap = click, two-finger tap = right click, double-tap and hold = drag or select text, two-finger scroll, pinch to zoom. Under the viewer's Settings you can tune sensitivity and scroll speed.

Turning the PC on remotely

If you leave the PC suspended, you can wake it from your phone without walking over to it. With Pro, while on the same network as the PC (from the Android app). With Premium, from wherever you are: PController asks another PC of yours that's switched on in that network, because the wake signal —Wake-on-LAN— only travels inside the local network; there's no way to send it over the internet.

Suspend, don't shut down. Windows doesn't support waking over the network from a normal shutdown (with Fast Startup on, which is the factory default), but it does from suspend. In the viewer you have Settings → Power → Suspend: that's how to leave the PC so you can wake it later.

Preparing the PC (once)

Wake-on-LAN is off on almost every PC. PController checks these four things by itself and tells you on the PC's card which ones are missing, so you don't have to guess:

Connect the PC with a network cable. Waking over WiFi isn't possible: the card disassociates from the router when it goes to sleep.
Turn off Windows Fast Startup (Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what the power buttons do).
Enable "Wake on Magic Packet" in the network card's properties (Device Manager → Advanced).
Tick "Allow this device to wake the computer" on the network card (Device Manager → Power Management).

Point 4 unticks itself. Windows resets it when the network driver updates, and from then on waking stops working without warning. If one day it doesn't wake, start there: the PC's card will flag it.

Turning it on

On the PC's card, when it's off, a Turn on button appears. We send the signal and wait for the PC to report back — usually between 20 seconds and 2 minutes, however long it takes to boot. If 2 minutes pass with nothing, we tell you: normally one of the four points above is missing, or the PC isn't on that network.

An honest caveat: nobody can confirm that a PC that's off received the signal — it's off, it can't answer. That's why we wait for it to report back instead of telling you "done" without knowing.

Managing your PCs, guests and links

Rename: on the PC's card in the web app you can change its name ("Office PC", "Gaming").
Invite someone: you generate an invitation as spectator (watch only) or copilot (watch and control). The other person accepts it with their own account; you can revoke it whenever you want.
Public link: a link for sharing the live screen without asking anyone for an account. It's revoked from the PC's card too.

Security: devices and sessions

At app.pcontroller.app/security you control who can reach your PCs:

Access devices: the browsers you approved (or that are still waiting for approval). You can revoke any of them whenever you want — the next time that browser tries to connect it goes back to pending until you approve it from the PC's panel (not by email).
Linked PCs: your machines with PController installed. If you lost a PC or think someone else has it, revoke it from here — it disconnects on its next heartbeat with the server (up to 5 minutes) and you'd have to link it again to use it.
Recent sessions: who connected to each PC and from where (local network or internet), so you can spot something odd quickly.

A real difference between "same network" and the internet. Through the tunnel everything is encrypted with TLS, end to end. "Same network" mode, on the other hand, is served over plain http:// : inside your WiFi the video and the keystrokes travel unencrypted, so someone with access to that same network could see them. At home that usually doesn't matter; on café or hotel WiFi, use the tunnel. It's a known limitation, not something we hide; if it worries you, write to us at soporte@pcontroller.app.

Switching account or unlinking the PC

Since version 1.5.0 there's nothing to reinstall:

In My panel → This PC's status → the Account row, tap Link another account and confirm.

PController deletes the local credentials and restarts by itself. Within a few seconds a new panel tab opens with a fresh linking code — scan it with the new account and you're done.

When uninstalling: the uninstaller asks whether you also want to delete the data of the account linked on that PC. Say yes if you're not going to reinstall or if the PC is changing hands; say no if you're going to reinstall and want it to stay linked as it was.

Common problems

The messages below are the ones the app shows, word for word, so you can find them quickly.

What you see	What it means	What to do
"Windows protected your PC" when opening the installer	SmartScreen warns about any executable without a code signature. Ours isn't signed yet, so it always shows — it doesn't mean anything was detected.	More info → Run anyway. If you want to verify first, compare the `.sha256` published next to the installer.
"The code expired. Ask for a new one to continue."	Linking codes expire after a few minutes, for safety.	Tap Ask for a new code in the panel.
"We couldn't reach the PController server."	The PC can't reach our backend — nearly always the PC's own internet connection.	Check the PC's internet. The app retries on its own; there's no need to restart.
"No connection to PController on this PC. Is the app still open?"	The panel tab lost the local app (it closed or is restarting).	Look for the tray icon. If it's not there, open PController again; the panel reopens on its own.
"Local network only (your plan doesn't include internet access)."	The Local plan works inside your WiFi; access from anywhere is Pro/Premium.	Connect from the same network, or look at the plans.
"cloudflared is missing on this PC — local network only."	The internet tunnel uses cloudflared. PController downloads its own copy the first time and verifies its signature; this shows up if that download failed (no internet, firewall, antivirus, and so on).	Check the connection and restart PController: it retries on startup by itself. Installing it yourself doesn't help — PController only uses the copy it downloads and verifies, so it ignores any other cloudflared you have on the system.
"We couldn't turn on internet access."	Provisioning the tunnel failed (unstable network or the service being down).	Check the connection and restart PController; it retries on startup. If it keeps happening, write to us.
"Reconnecting internet access…"	The tunnel dropped and is coming back on its own.	Wait a few seconds; there's nothing to touch.
"Approve this device"	It's the first time you connect from that browser — PController doesn't recognise it yet.	On the PC, open My panel (system tray icon → "Open my panel"), find "Devices waiting for approval" and approve it there. Then go in again from app.pcontroller.app on the phone. This step requires being at the PC — no email is sent.
The viewer says your free session has ended	Your account has no active licence: the trial expired and you haven't picked a plan yet.	Pick a plan to connect again: Local is $10 paid once and lets you use it inside your network; Pro and Premium add internet and audio.
The PC shows as off under My PCs but it's switched on	PController isn't running on that PC, or the PC lost its internet connection.	On the PC: check the tray icon and the status in My panel.

Swipe the table →

For deeper diagnosis: the app keeps a log at %APPDATA%\PController\pcontroller.log. If you write to us about a problem, attach it — it speeds up the answer a great deal.

Didn't find your case? Write to us at soporte@pcontroller.app and we'll sort it out.

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