Your machines

Windows

Manage Windows PCs from Muxen over OpenSSH, run Muxen itself on Windows, and make Windows VMs.

Windows shows up in Muxen three ways: Windows PCs you manage like your other machines, the Muxen app running on a Windows PC, and Windows VMs that Muxen makes on one of your Linux machines. This page covers all three.

Setting up a Windows PC

Muxen reaches a Windows PC over ssh, like any other machine. Windows comes with an ssh server; it just isn’t on yet.

On the PC, turn on OpenSSH Server in Settings › System › Optional features.
Start it, and have it start with Windows. In PowerShell as administrator:
```
Start-Service sshd
Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType Automatic
```
Set up key login from this computer, so Muxen can connect without a password.
Add it in Muxen (⌘N) with its user@host, like any machine.

For an account in the Administrators group, Windows’ OpenSSH reads keys from C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys, not the usual ~\.ssh\authorized_keys. If Muxen says the PC “doesn’t know this Mac yet” after you added your key, that’s the usual reason.

Muxen installs its agent in %USERPROFILE%\.muxen\bin and works with PowerShell or cmd as sshd’s shell. Use an administrator account if you want to manage services or install runners there.

What works on a Windows PC

Agent sessions and terminals keep running after Muxen closes, like on a Mac or Linux.
The desktop and the clipboard: the screen, mouse and keyboard of whoever is signed in. Muxen starts its helper in their session through a one-off scheduled task, so no window flashes. See Desktops.
Services: Windows services, where “at boot” is the startup type. Starting and stopping them needs an administrator account.
Processes and GPUs.
Logs: the System, Application and Security event logs, a service’s events, and log files. See Logs, services and Docker.
Servers, Copy files, git and Usage.
Run: commands on several machines at once run in PowerShell on Windows.
Workspaces. Syncing copies through the agent, and doesn’t mirror deletions.
Schedules run through Task Scheduler, in a \Muxen\ folder, so they run even when Muxen isn’t open. See Schedules.
Runners install as Windows services.
Direct connections: the agent’s listener runs as a scheduled task at sign-in, with a Windows Firewall rule. See Connections.

Checks on a Windows PC also report whether the account has admin rights, Docker, its network card (for Wake on LAN), a pending reboot, and failed services.

Not on Windows yet

Docker runners and Docker workspaces. Runners there install as services instead.
Virtual monitors. The desktop shows the monitors the PC has.
VMs on a Windows PC. Muxen makes VMs on Linux machines and Macs, not on Windows.

Muxen on Windows

Muxen itself runs on Windows 11. The installer, Muxen-Setup-x64.exe, installs it for your user only, with no administrator needed:

It goes in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Muxen, with a Start menu entry and an uninstaller.
An option adds muxen to your PATH, for the command line and muxen mcp.
Started from the Start menu or Explorer, it opens with no console window. From a terminal, muxen is the same CLI as everywhere else.
Secrets, like a DigitalOcean token, go in Windows’ Credential Manager instead of the Keychain.
Its config lives in %APPDATA%\muxin.

Keyboard shortcuts use Ctrl where a Mac uses ⌘, and Alt for the pages (Alt+1 for the overview).

Windows VMs

No Windows PC? Muxen can make a Windows 11, Windows 10, Server 2025 or Server 2022 VM on one of your Linux machines (x86-64, with Docker and KVM). It installs itself in 15 to 30 minutes, turns on OpenSSH with your key, and joins your machines, where everything above works the same. Its account password is kept for you: Copy password on its page.

win-test's page: a Virtual machine on Beacon card with Stop, Copy password, Open Beacon and Destroy, and the sidebar with win-test under Beacon. — win-test, a Windows 11 VM on Beacon.

See VMs on your machines for making one.