Help & FAQ

Heavendesk decodes video on your graphics chip when it can, because that is fast and leaves the processor free. If the viewer says it is decoding on the processor, your graphics driver is missing the video format. On a computer you share, the same thing shows as “software” next to its name in the Heavendesk window. The session still works, but the frame rate may be lower.

Some Linux distributions ship their graphics drivers without these video formats for patent reasons, and the complete driver is a separate package. Install the one for your system, then sign out and back in (or restart):

On Fedora, turn on RPM Fusion first — its setup page has the one command to run. Heavendesk does not ship these codecs itself; the packages above come from your distribution or from RPM Fusion.

Other systems: installing your distribution’s VA-API driver for your graphics chip usually fixes it. Heavendesk also picks a video format each viewer can decode on its graphics chip by itself, so an older laptop watching a newer computer gets the format it handles best without you doing anything.

On Intel’s Broadwell generation — HD Graphics 5300–6300 and Iris 6100/6200, found in laptops such as the Dell Latitude E5450 and E7450, and the Celeron and Pentium N3000-series chips of the same generation — the newer Intel video driver can crash while encoding. When such a computer is shared, Heavendesk encodes with Intel’s older driver instead, which is reliable on this generation. It is not always installed:

Viewing from one of these computers needs nothing extra: watching uses the newer driver from the section above.

Almost always the network rather than Heavendesk — most often Wi-Fi on the computer being shared. Many laptops put their Wi-Fi to sleep between packets to save power, which can stop the connection for a second or more. In one of our tests the same laptop froze in two sessions out of three on Wi-Fi and in none once it was plugged in by cable.

A network cable is the best fix. If that is not possible, turning off Wi-Fi power saving often helps. On Linux with NetworkManager, replace the name with your Wi-Fi network’s:

Heavendesk first tries to connect your two computers directly. When a network does not allow that — some office, mobile and hotel networks — the session goes through one of our relay servers instead, and the viewer says “Connected through a relay”.

The session works the same, with a little more delay. Because relayed traffic runs through our servers, your plan sets a maximum picture quality for it, and the bitrate slider shows that limit. Direct connections are not limited this way.

Heavendesk only needs to make outgoing connections to heavendesk.com on port 443 — the same as a web browser — so it often works on company and school networks without any setup. If the network also blocks the faster direct route between your computers, Heavendesk carries the whole session over that same port 443 instead. The session works the same, with some extra delay, and your plan’s limit for relayed sessions applies (see “Connected through a relay” above).

If your network makes you use a proxy server, Heavendesk usually finds it by itself: from Windows’ own proxy settings, or from the usual proxy variables (HTTPS_PROXY, ALL_PROXY and NO_PROXY) on Linux. If it does not, open Settings, then Network, choose This server and enter it as host:port, for example proxy.example.com:8080, then press Apply. The setting is used by the app and by sharing on that computer.

What does not work: proxies that ask for a Windows or company sign-in (NTLM or Kerberos), SOCKS proxies, networks that inspect HTTPS with a certificate your computer does not trust, and networks where the company blocks remote-access programs or unfamiliar websites. In those cases ask your IT team to add their certificate to the computer, or to let heavendesk.com through without inspection. A proxy that needs only a user name and password can be given to Heavendesk with the HEAVENDESK_PROXY variable, for example http://user:password@proxy.example.com:8080; it is not stored in Settings because that file can be read by everyone on the computer.

For whoever runs the network: allow outgoing HTTPS (TCP 443) to heavendesk.com, including WebSocket connections. Nothing else is needed.

Heavendesk belongs to the computer, not to one of its user accounts. Once a computer is shared, everyone who uses it gets the same Heavendesk: the same settings, the same account, and the same list of your other computers to connect to.

Whoever is signed in on the screen can be reached remotely, and so can the sign-in screen. There is no separate setting per person, so share a computer only when everyone who uses it is fine with that.

Older versions of Heavendesk worked differently: there, people other than the one who set it up were private by default, and someone trying to connect was told that the person using the computer had not allowed it. Updating Heavendesk on that computer ends this.

If you installed an early version of Heavendesk on Ubuntu or Debian, updates may have stopped with an error saying the repository changed its “Origin” value. That is apt noticing a change in how our name is written. Accept the change once:

After that, updates arrive normally again.

The Windows installer is not signed yet, so Windows does not know who made it. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen then shows "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, check that the app name is the installer you downloaded from this site (the publisher shows as unknown until the installer is signed), then Run anyway. If you want to be sure the file is ours, compare its checksum first (the next topic).

Smart App Control is stricter: on a PC where it is turned on, Windows blocks unsigned programs outright and offers no way to run them. Turning it off is a setting for the whole PC (Windows Security, App & browser control), and Windows may not let you turn it back on later, so we do not suggest doing that just for Heavendesk. A signed installer is on the way; until then, use Heavendesk on a PC without Smart App Control.

The Downloads page lists a checksum for the Windows installer and the PowerShell commands to check it. If the result does not match, download the installer again and do not run the file you have.