My notes on Rustdesk installation and configuration – not even a remotely-normal review (pun intended). 🙂 More of a hands-on experience with installation, configuration, and why it’s (currently) the perfect solution for my mixed-use remote access needs.
Why?
Anydesk went to corporate-only pricing (as did Teamviewer a couple of years before). My use-case:
- I need unattended access (connect if the computer is turned on, no input from the user) to about 3 PCs.
- In addition to that, I need to connect to other computers only a couple of times per week – or month, depending on the month.
- Finally, very rarely (about once per year if that), I need to connect to a dozen or more random computers in one week or so.
I am fine with paying for this last item extra, on a per-needed basis. Unfortunately, Anydesk and most other remote access software alternatives don’t support that kind of use unless you pay hundreds of dollars for one year of subscription (about $300 and more at the time of writing).
I did google “Anyviewer” – the prices are low, but it looks very shady, and the install file is not whitelisted in Virustotal service, so… doesn’t look reliable enough for my taste (nothing more, nothing less – I would love to be proven wrong on this).
Of course, I turned to the Low End Spirit (LES) forum for help and, based on this article’s title, you can guess what the recommended solution was. 🙂
Download and installation
This is a bit unintuitive because the site has “SELF-HOSTED” written all over the place – and I didn’t want to bother with a VPS. Clicking on the “Download” link took me to Github where I could pick the client version I need (the “Ubuntu” column gives you a .deb you can install on Ubuntu or Mint and it works fine):
https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/releases/tag/1.4.3
After that, it’s typical next-next-yes-yes installation on Windows, and with Linux the .deb works as I noted above. 🙂
Note that the .exe version is portable (no installation on Windows, you just run it from a USB for example), while the .msi is the standard Windows installer.
Disable autostart
Windows installer sets the Rustdesk to autorun when the PC starts (you can find and disable this at Apps -> Startup).
For Linux, this is what worked for me:
Confirmed that Rustdesk’s systemd service works:
systemctl list-unit-files | grep rustdeskCode language: PHP (php)Saw:
rustdesk.service enabled enabled
To stop it from autostarting at boot:
sudo systemctl disable rustdesk.serviceCode language: CSS (css)After I entered my password, it showed this:
Removed /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rustdesk.service.
To re-enable the autostart:
sudo systemctl enable rustdesk.serviceCode language: CSS (css)For .desktop autostart, this should work (haven’t tested it):
Confirm it is not starting via .desktop file (it should not be listed here):
ls ~/.config/autostart/
Remove from there:
rm ~/.config/autostart/rustdesk.desktop
Configuring Rustdesk
Your computer’s ID is shown clearly when you open the application. Settings options worth noting for the non-self-hosted use:
Security settings and remote connecting
These options need to be unlocked before you can alter them (on Linux, it’s the user password you would use for other sudo stuff).
For unattended access:
Then, you can set a permanent password if you want a remote unattended access with a password (choose “Accept sessions via password”).
For normal access – you may prefer to use the one-time password. Either way you will need to know the ID of the PC you are connecting to, of course.
Display settings
Default view style -> Scale adaptive (unless your screen is really small and you are fine with scrolling all the time).
Default image quality -> Optimize reaction time (unless you have a super-fast connection and need great picture quality for some reason).
My experience
Testing
So far, I’ve tested all the permutations of Windows, Linux Mint, and Linux ubuntu connections (to and from each to each, basically – and yes, it is a lot 🙂 ). Tried different ISPs and networks. Different screen resolutions (including to and from ultrawide).
It works. It works great. With the free account, using the Rustdesk-hosted infrastructure. Beautiful.
The good
It is free and open source. Runs pretty well out of the box. Supports Linux, Windows (tested these first two), Mac, Android, IOS (haven’t tested these last three).
If you like, you can self-host it (I haven’t, so can’t really give any pros and cons of that from my experience).
The bad
It is not as intuitive as its major alternatives (like Anydesk and Teamviewer). I can imagine Maggie from accounting visiting the Rustdesk’s home page and not understanding how to download the right software for her PC.
The client is also pretty big, with Windows installed version taking over 70 MB (install is 22 MB), as opposed to Anydesk’s 10 MB (install is 7 MB) client.
Pricing for the paid tiers looks pretty expensive – and a bit unclear: I could only find self-hosted option pricing – but they aren’t clear about whether they offer SAAS alternative (and how much that would cost).
https://rustdesk.com/pricing/?lang=en
Alternatives
A brief overview of the notable alternatives (according to my opinion):
- Teamviewer
Outrageously expensive plans, with no useful free usage tier (they force you to pay even if you use it for one PC a few times per year), without impressive performance compared to Anydesk for example. It does work on Windows, Linux, and Mac if memory serves me. - Anydesk
Very good software, tried and tested, that works fine on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Pricing has become more and more expensive, while free usage limits are getting close to the Teamviewer’s nonsense. - Helpwire
I haven’t tested this software yet – but you can do its beta testing for free (as in you won’t be paid, but you won’t have to pay). In 2026, they plan to start charging – and that’s all I know. Pointless to waste time for as long as Rustdesk works and I don’t know what the pricing model looks like. - Nomachine
Looks interesting – in case Rustdesk starts doing bad stuff (poor connection quality or crazy price enforcement), I might check this one out.
Conclusion
While the initial installation and setup may be a tad less intuitive compared to some alternatives, Rustdesk is still easy to use and gets the job done.
Based on my experience from the past decades:
When this kind of software, that works as well as Rustdesk does, becomes well known and more widely popular – prices start going high, and free use gets “discouraged.”
Still, for now, Rustdesk does the job, and until that changes: there is no more honest recommendation than using the software myself. Many thanks to the good people of LES forum for letting me know about this software. 🙂
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