Windows desktop app · early v1

>_ Full graphical control of a Linux server — nothing installed on it.

LinuxDesk is a native Windows app for managing Linux servers over plain SSH/SFTP: files, deployments, services, processes, logs, and monitoring in one tool. If ssh already works to a box, LinuxDesk works.

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🪟 Windows 10/11 🔓 No server-side agent ☕ Java 21 + JavaFX
LinuxDesk — Connect to VM
LinuxDesk login screen with multi-profile sidebar and live ssh command preview
How it works

One SSH connection. Nothing to install on the server.

LinuxDesk speaks SSH/SFTP directly — the same protocol the ssh CLI uses — so there's no companion service, port, or package to install and keep patched on the machine you're managing.

Your Windows PC LinuxDesk (client) Just needs your private key Any Linux Server just OpenSSH (sshd) No agent · no daemon to patch 🔒 ssh -i key user@host plain SSH / SFTP · port 22
STEP 01

Add a profile

Host, port, username, and the SSH key or password you already use — nothing new to create.

STEP 02

Watch it connect

The login form shows the exact ssh -i key user@host it's about to run, live, as you type.

STEP 03

Work through the GUI

Home directory opens as a desktop; every tool — terminal, deploy, services, logs, monitor — is one click from the taskbar.

STEP 04

Review before it runs

Deploys show a full numbered plan — hooks, backups, uploads, deletes, health check — with a dry-run option, before anything executes.

What you get

Everything you'd open five different tools for.

File manager, deploy pipeline, task manager, service manager, log tailer, and a monitoring dashboard — all through the one connection you already opened.

~/home — icon grid
Remote folder browser shown as a desktop-style icon grid with taskbar and search
File management

A real desktop, not a two-pane file list

The remote home directory opens as a desktop-style icon grid: double-click into folders, drag-and-drop from Explorer, a Windows-search-style field for files and commands, and a right-click menu for copy/rename/delete/permissions/compress.

  • Syntax-highlighted code editor with find/replace, saved straight back over SFTP
  • chmod/chown with a live octal ↔ checkbox matrix and a blast-radius count before recursive changes
  • Compress/extract .zip, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz via the server's own tools
Deploy — plan preview
Deploy workflow showing compare, hooks, health checks and a plan preview before anything runs
Deployment

Deploy is a workflow, not an upload button

Compare local against remote (size or SHA-256), pick what ships with .gitignore-style ignore patterns, then review a numbered plan before anything touches the server.

  • Pre/post-deploy hooks, with a failing pre-hook aborting before any backup or upload
  • Health checks — HTTP, TCP, process, systemd, or command — with optional auto-rollback
  • Automatic backup with 5-deep retention, and rollback to any of them
  • Production-tagged hosts require typing the host name to confirm a deploy
System monitor
System monitor dashboard with CPU and memory charts and a disk usage table
Monitoring

Live vitals without installing a metrics agent

One batched SSH round-trip every 2 seconds — /proc/stat, free, df — driving rolling CPU/memory charts and a disk usage table, all client-side.

  • Task manager with sortable processes and an End Task confirmation
  • Service manager for systemd units — start/stop/restart/enable/disable
  • Live log viewer over journalctl -f or any file, with a running filter
More of the toolkit

The rest of the Start panel.

Terminal
Interactive SSH terminal window
Terminal — a real interactive shell on the remote host, opened from the taskbar.
Task Manager
Task manager showing live remote processes
Task manager — live processes, sortable and searchable, End Task behind a confirmation.
Service Manager
Service manager showing systemd units
Service manager — systemd units with start/stop/restart/enable/disable.
Log Viewer
Log viewer live-tailing a journal
Log viewer — live journal/file tailing with a substring filter and auto-scroll.
Why LinuxDesk

The other options force a tradeoff.

File clients move bytes and stop there. Terminal clients get you a shell but you're still typing every command. Web control panels cover real breadth but need a privileged daemon installed and maintained on every server — a non-starter on hardened hosts or boxes you don't own.

Capability WinSCP PuTTY / MobaXterm Cockpit / Webmin LinuxDesk
File management Yes Manual (shell) Yes Yes
Service / process / log tools No Manual (shell) Yes Yes
Guided deploy with rollback No No No Yes
Command / plan preview before it runs No — No On connect + deploy
Requires installing something on the server No* No* Yes — a daemon No

* WinSCP/PuTTY need nothing installed either — they're just SFTP/shell clients with no admin workflow beyond that.

Under the hood

Native, not a browser in a window.

A real JavaFX application — no bundled Chromium, no Electron runtime, a UI thread that stays responsive during long transfers.

Java 21 JavaFX Apache MINA SSHD BouncyCastle RichTextFX Maven
Project status — early v1, in active development, already past a toy: login/profiles/history, the file browser and editor, permissions, compress/extract, upload/download, drag-and-drop, an interactive terminal, task and service managers, a live log viewer, a system monitor, a tamper-evident audit log, and the full deploy workflow are built and verified end-to-end against a real VM. Windows only for now; no MFA/SSH-agent auth yet; the terminal is line-based, not a full emulator, so full-screen programs like vim/top won't render in it.
Get LinuxDesk

Point it at a box you can already SSH into.

Free Windows download. No account, no server-side install, no daemon left behind.

⬇ Download LinuxDesk.exe ✉ Send feedback
Windows 10/11 · installer built with jpackage · latest release on GitHub