The Swiss alternative to Chrome Remote Desktop

• A Google account and a Chromium browser are mandatory. Nothing runs without a Google login and Chrome (or Chromium) — there is no standalone client.
• Consumer focus. No central admin console, no team roles, limited unattended access across multiple hosts.
• No Swiss data residency. Google is a US corporation (CLOUD Act); regulated sectors require proof of data location and jurisdiction.

If those points matter to you, WinDesk is the professional choice. If you only need occasional access to your own PC, Chrome Remote Desktop is a usable free tool.

This is the reason most people go looking in the first place. Chrome Remote Desktop is not a product you install and use — it is a feature of a Google account. Both ends need one: the machine being helped and the person helping.

That matters in three situations, and none of them is unusual.

• The person you are helping has no Google account. Walking someone through creating one, on a machine that is already broken, over the phone, is not a support process anybody wants twice.
• Your organisation does not use Google. If the company runs on Microsoft 365 or on its own directory, remote support should not be the one thing that requires a second identity provider nobody manages.
• The account is the single point of failure. Whoever holds the Google login holds every machine reachable through it. There are no roles to limit that, and no log that would show it afterwards.

WinDesk needs no account at all for attended support: the host shows a session ID and a PIN, the technician types them in, the session ends and the PIN is void. An account is needed only for unattended access — and then it is ours, not a third party's.

Chrome Remote Desktop is genuinely free, with no time limit and no device count. That is hard to beat, and a comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth reading. So the honest question is not which is cheaper but where free stops being enough.

WinDesk Free gives two hours a month with five minutes per session, without an account and without a card. That covers helping a relative and it covers trying the product. It does not cover a working day.

What you get in exchange, once you are past that line, is what Chrome Remote Desktop has never offered at any price: central host management, roles, a monthly report of your support connections as PDF or CSV, a host sign-in bound to the security chip, and somebody to write to. Pro is CHF 29.90 a month, billed from the first month; a wider look at the free routes is on the free remote desktop page.

It was built for one person reaching their own computer. Everything that follows from more than one technician is missing, and it is missing by design rather than by oversight.

WinDesk Pro answers both: hosts are grouped, roles decide what each team member may do, sessions are logged, you export a monthly report of your support connections per customer as PDF or CSV, and the host's sign-in is bound to the machine's security chip (TPM or Secure Enclave) where available.

Often. It is a good tool, and there are cases where switching would be a step backwards.

• You reach your own computers, alone. No team, no customers, no obligation to document anything. Then free with no time limit is exactly right and there is nothing to improve.
• You are already in the Google world. If the account exists, Chrome is open anyway and nothing else needs installing, the friction is close to zero.
• You want to connect from a phone or tablet. Chrome Remote Desktop has mobile apps. WinDesk does not, and will not before 2027.

The case for switching starts where support becomes work someone pays for: several technicians, machines belonging to other people, questions about who accessed what, and a contract with somebody you can actually call.

There is nothing to migrate. Chrome Remote Desktop keeps no address book worth exporting and no configuration that carries over, so the switch is an installation rather than a migration.

• Run both for a week. They do not interfere. Install the WinDesk host next to the Chrome host and take the next support case on whichever you like.
• Start with the attended case. Session ID and PIN need no account on either side, so the first real test costs nothing.
• Pair the machines you keep coming back to. Unattended access needs a Pro account and a one-time confirmation on each host; after that the machine is in your list.
• Remove the Chrome host last. In Chrome under Remote Access, take the machine off the list — not before the WinDesk pairing is confirmed on that same machine.