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IAP Desktop

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

Download IAP Desktop

x86 (32-bit) | x64 (64-bit). For Windows 10 and 11. No admin rights required.

Access Linux and Windows VMs from anywhere

Overview

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 IAP let you apply zero-trust security to your VMs:

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

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 over SFTP

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

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:

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Manage VMs across projects

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 audit events and serial port output.
  • Remotely join a VM to Active Directory
  • Perform other common operations such as starting or stopping VMs

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Connect to SQL Server and other server applications

Connect to SQL Server

You can use IAP Desktop to let client applications connect to your Google Cloud VMs through IAP: Right-click a VM, select the application to launch, and IAP Desktop automatically connects the application through an IAP TCP forwarding tunnel.

Supported client applications include:

Instead of letting IAP Desktop launch a client application for you, you can use port forwarding and connect the application to the forwarded port yourself.