Windows desktop image

Windows catches up with Linux: the same fine-grained input, the same region capture, and the same way of asking a desktop to describe what is on screen.

• The input primitives Windows was missing

  Clicks now take held modifiers and a repeat count, /mouse_down and /mouse_up let you act while the button is held for drag-select and spreadsheet ranges, and /hold_key holds a key for a duration where /key only taps. The repeat count is applied inside the desktop, so a double- or triple-click no longer depends on how long each request took to arrive, and an unrecognised modifier is refused outright rather than dropped. A partial set performs a different gesture and would otherwise report success for it.

• Region screenshots

  GET /screenshot?region=x,y,w,h returns one rectangle, captured at the display’s own resolution. The returned width and height describe the crop rather than the screen, so a caller scaling coordinates against a cropped image does not land every click somewhere else.

• Ask an action to describe the screen it left behind

  Add ?context=1 to an action and the response also carries the pointer position, the focused window, and every window grouped by application with its geometry. It is the same shape the Linux image returns, so one format reads from both. A focused Chrome window also reports the elements on the page in screen coordinates, so a click can name what it is aiming at instead of estimating a position off a screenshot. Without the parameter, responses are byte-for-byte what they were.

• Stricter credential checksSecurity

  A Windows desktop is stricter about what it will accept as a valid credential. Update your computers to pick this up.

• Chrome page elements are actually reachableFix

  The browser could report no page elements at all, with nothing explaining why. Fixed.

A rebuild of the same image. Nothing about the Windows desktop changed.

• SSH into a Windows desktop

  A key-only SSH server is now part of the image, so a Windows computer can be used as a plain server and reached over SSH with a key. You connect as Administrator. Passwords are not accepted.

• Credential rotation works on the shipped imageFix

  The rotation added in v0.3.7 did not take effect on the published image. Fixed.

• A resumed desktop gets a fresh credential

  A Windows desktop can be handed a new credential in place, without a reboot. Windows desktops resume from a saved memory snapshot rather than booting from cold, and every desktop restored from one snapshot would otherwise start life holding the same credential the snapshot was captured with. Rotating on resume means a restored desktop gets its own.

• Console windows no longer appear on the desktopFix

  Commands run on your behalf could flash a console window onto the screen, including into screenshots. Fixed.

• Desktops boot reliably from the imageFix

  Storage-driver and firmware settings baked into the image could leave a new desktop unable to boot. Fixed.

A rebuild of the same image. Nothing about the Windows desktop changed.

• A desktop that booted but never answeredFix

  A freshly created Windows desktop could come up without accepting actions. Fixed.

The first Windows image. A Windows desktop you create the same way you create a Linux one, driven through the same API.

• Windows desktops

  Windows Server 2019, built as a read-only base image that every computer overlays, so a new Windows desktop costs no copy of the disk to create. Screenshots, clicks, typing, key presses, scrolling and dragging all work through the same endpoints as a Linux desktop, alongside shell commands, file upload and download, and a terminal. You can also connect over RDP.

• Restore from a memory snapshot instead of a cold boot

  The image ships with a memory snapshot captured after Windows has finished starting, so a desktop restores into an already-booted machine in a few seconds rather than waiting out a full Windows boot.