[FEATURE] - "Friendly URL" / jumping directly to a computer

[darkpixel]

It would be nice to have a "friendly URL" that would take you directly to the "pick a session" screen so you can connect easier.

i.e. https://controlr.example.tld/remote/DESKTOP-AB123CD

[bitbound]

You can currently link directly to the remote control page for a device using this format:

https://{hostname}/device-access/remote-control?deviceId={deviceId:guid}

I'm going to change this in the next release, so the device ID is in the path instead of a query param. So:

https://{hostname}/device-access/remote-control/{deviceId:guid}

[darkpixel]

Thanks, but I don't know the GUID ahead of time unless (I'm assuming) do some sort of API query to match names to GUIDs.

It would be handy to just be able to pass the computer name and skip all the API interaction.

[bitbound]

Gotcha. Well, I can't make the computer name column unique, since it's entirely possible to have identically-named computers on one server.

However, I do want to make the solution flexible and able to integrate other RMMs and such. I'll be dedicating time for that in 2026. Currently, the options are the API or, as another user mentioned, running a script via their RMM to snag the device ID from appsettings.json on the remote machine.

I also added a DeviceId field on the Deploy page, so you can deterministically set it when deploying/installing.

In the future, I was thinking of making an option to add alternate identifiers to devices, so you can correlate them to another system, add a friendly name, etc. Then be able to use the alternate IDs for querying, accessing, etc.

If you could explain your environment and workflow a little more, and what you'd like to see, that'd be helpful. 🙂 If you don't feel comfortable sharing on here, you can hit me up on Discord at @bitbounds (with an "s").

[darkpixel]

Gotcha. Well, I can't make the computer name column unique, since it's entirely possible to have identically-named computers on one server.

I totally get it. There are some pretty bad IT guys out there. ;)
In my case, all ~5,000 machines are uniquely named due to a good naming scheme, and it's rabidly enforced.
Maybe the URL could just spit back a list of matching machine names with a "connect" button next to them?

However, I do want to make the solution flexible and able to integrate other RMMs and such. I'll be dedicating time for that in 2026. Currently, the options are the API or, as another user mentioned, running a script via their RMM to snag the device ID from appsettings.json on the remote machine.

I wondered where that was assigned. I'll just add a field to my RMM and start grabbing the data while playing.

In the future, I was thinking of making an option to add alternate identifiers to devices, so you can correlate them to another system, add a friendly name, etc. Then be able to use the alternate IDs for querying, accessing, etc.

That might be handy for people who don't have good naming schemes. ;)

If you could explain your environment and workflow a little more, and what you'd like to see, that'd be helpful. 🙂 If you don't feel comfortable sharing on here, you can hit me up on Discord at @bitbounds (with an "s").

No worries.
The short answer is that I hate all remote access tools, and while I don't want to spend a month or two developing my own, I'm really not interested in paying someone like TeamViewer $5k/year for the 20 minutes average time I spend using a remote access tool every day when I could (again, with a month or two of effort) host it on my own internal Kubernetes cluster for pennies per year.

I did some testing with 'remotely' a while back and while it was pretty good, I had some reasons for not using it.
Seeing that development has moved on to 'ControlR', I figured I would give it a test and so far my only issue is the inability to use a "friendly URL" to access a computer.

Everything we manage follows a strict naming format that is based off the only good thing the United Nations ever did: LOCODE. Every locality in the world gets assigned a 5-character code. For example Seattle, WA is 'USSEA' and Portland, OR is 'USPDX'.

We use a total of 12 characters, including that 5-character LOCODE prefix to identify the city/state, the client/customer and the function of the machine (copier, router, printer, switch, router, nas, workstation, etc...). It's followed by a 2-digit number for disambiguation (i.e. 01, 02, 03).

As for a workflow, we don't have anything that integrates with a remote access tool.
But basically anyone who calls in is linked (based on caller ID, extension, etc...) to an office (which is linked to a client) or they are linked to a client. Computers are linked to an office.

A nice in-house screen-pop shows us who is calling, what office they're in, and all sorts of details on whichever computer we click on from our in-house agent we deployed as well as various other tools (like pulling in data from Opensearch, AD/Samba, etc...).

I think it would be great to have a simple friendly URL way to link into remote access.

[j0nathanr]

I wondered where that was assigned. I'll just add a field to my RMM and start grabbing the data while playing.

Just wanted to chime in, this is exactly what I've been doing with great success. Below is what I've been using in the same script that includes the deploy command, it simply retries with a delay a set number of times until the appsettings.json exists and only prints the device id guid:

$jsonPath = "C:\ProgramData\ControlR\*servername*\appsettings.json"
$maxRetries = 4
$sleepSeconds = 15
$attempt = 0

while ($attempt -lt $maxRetries) {
    $attempt++
    
    if (Test-Path -Path $jsonPath) {
        try {
            # File exists
            $deviceId = (Get-Content $jsonPath | ConvertFrom-Json).AppOptions.DeviceId
            
            if ($deviceId) {
                Write-Output "$deviceId"
                exit 0
            } else {
                Write-Warning "appsettings.json exists but DeviceID is empty or null"
            }
        }
        catch {
            Write-Warning "Attempt $attempt/${maxRetries}: Error reading or parsing appsettings.json"
        }
    } else {
        Write-Warning "Attempt $attempt/${maxRetries}: appsettings.json not found at $jsonPath"
    }
    
    # If unsuccesful with retries left
    if ($attempt -lt $maxRetries) {
        Write-Output "Waiting $sleepSeconds seconds before retry..."
        Start-Sleep -Seconds $sleepSeconds
    }
}

# No retries left
Write-Error "Failed to retrieve Device ID after $maxRetries attempts"
exit 1