IAP Desktop

IAP Desktop is a Remote Desktop and SSH client that lets you connect to your Google Cloud VM instances from anywhere.

_{For Windows 11/10/8.1. No admin rights required.}

Access Linux and Windows VMs from anywhere

IAP Desktop uses Identity-Aware-Proxy (IAP) to connect to VM instances so that you can:

• Connect to VM instances that don’t have a public IP address
• Connect from anywhere over the internet

Together, IAP Desktop and Identity-Aware-Proxy (IAP) let you apply zero-trust security to your VMs:

• Apply fine-grained access controls that define who can access which VM
• Use access levels to restrict access by time or location
• Use BeycondCorp Enterprise to limit access to trusted devices

The application automatically manages IAP TCP tunnels for you, and protects them so that no other users or programs can access them.

Connect to Windows VMs with Remote Desktop

IAP Desktop is a full-featured Remote Desktop client that lets you:

• Use multiple Remote Desktop sessions at the same time
• Switch between full-screen and tabbed Remote Desktop sessions
• Upload and download files

To help you authenticate to Windows VMs, IAP Desktop can:

• Automatically generate Windows credentials by using the Compute Engine guest agent environment
• Encrypt and store your Windows credentials locally

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Connect to Linux VMs with SSH

IAP Desktop includes an SSH client and terminal so that you can:

• Use multiple SSH sessions in parallel, and switch between them using tabs
• Upload and download files using SFTP

To help you authenticate to Linux VMs, IAP Desktop can:

• Automatically create and publish SSH keys to OS Login or metadata
• Use OS Login 2-factor authentication
• Store our SSH keys locally using Windows CNG

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Manage VMs across projects

IAP Desktop gives you a consolidated view of your VMs and lets you:

• Connect to VMs across multiple projects and Google Cloud organizations
• View diagnostics information such as logs and serial port output
• Perform common operations such as starting or stopping VMs

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Learn more about IAP Desktop

• Setting up IAP-Desktop
• Connecting to Windows VMs
• Connecting to Linux VMs
• Connecting to VM instances from within a web browser
• Viewing instance details
• Viewing instance activity
• Analyzing VM instance usage
• Managing IAP Desktop using group policies
• Troubleshooting

IAP Desktop is an open-source project and not an officially supported Google product.

All files in this repository are under the Apache License, Version 2.0 unless noted otherwise.