As an alternative, you could choose to adopt a lightweight desktop which doesn’t exhibit this behaviour, for example MATE or Xfce.

Fig. 6 – The Connection Monitor Menu of the server when nobody is connected

TIP

When ‘Show main window’ is clicked or the User Interface is open via Programs or Applications, the Connection Monitor Menu shows also the ‘Quit NoMachine Player’ item.

Clicking on ‘Desktop shared’ disables/enables sharing of the physical screen of this host.

At the bottom of the UI there is small icon which controls fast track acces to the physical desktop of this host. Switching on/off this icon makes the same as clicking the ‘Desktop shared’ in the menu. If the computer is your own, and you need to access it remotely, it’s advisable to keep turned on.

TIP

You can hide the ‘Desktop shared’ item from the Connection Monitor menu by editing the node configuration file: /usr/NX/etc/node.cfg on Linux %PROGRAMFILES%/NoMachine/etc/node.cfg directory on Windows /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg on macOS Set there: EnableAcceptingConnection 0

It opens the client User Interface and displays by default a welcome panel that shows the IP of this host, to be used for connecting from another device to the desktop of this machine.

Fig. 7 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Show main window, the welcome panel

Click on ‘Ok’ leads to the ‘Machines’ panel displaying the connections you already created and the NoMachine servers available in your network, if any.

From the main window you can start an existing connection or create a new one. You can also access ‘Settings’ to configure the client and the server settings.

Fig. 8 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Show main window, the ‘Machines’ panel

It opens the User Interface on the Server settings section, with focus on the ‘Server status panel’.

From this panel you can easily see if the server is running and you can restart or shutdown it. It also displays users actually connected to this host and give the possibility to disconnect any of them.

Fig. 9 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Show server status

It displays files transferred from user’s device to this computer.

Fig. 10 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Show transfer status

It displays the NoMachine whiteboard, a tool which allows NoMachine users connected to this computer to exchange messages and drawings. It also provides ‘Upload a file’ and ‘Download a file’ buttons for easily transferring files while using the tool. Note that all users connected to the same desktop will see the content of the whiteboard.

Fig. 11 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Show whiteboard

TIP

You can hide the ‘Show whiteboard’ item from the Connection Monitor menu by editing the node configuration file: /usr/NX/etc/node.cfg on Linux %PROGRAMFILES%/NoMachine/etc/node.cfg on Windows /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg on macOS Set there: EnableWhiteboard 0

It opens the recording tool to start recording the desktop. Even if nobody is connected to this host, you can use it for recording a video of your activities on the physical desktop.

In case of a Linux host, when the recording tool is opened inside the NoMachine virtual desktop, it records activities made inside that session.

Fig. 12 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Show recording bar

TIP

NoMachine video recordings are .nxr files which can be opened by a H.264-capable player (except QuickTime Player, at the moment).

This is a shortcut to shutdown the NoMachine server and all services. A dialog is issued to confirm that. Administrative privileges are requested to perform the shutdown, you will be requested to authenticate as administrator or root user on Linux. Once authenticated, all services will be shut down and the !M icon will disappear from the system tray.

By default, NoMachine server and services will be restarted at the next boot.

Otherwise you can launch the NoMachine User Interface from Programs or Applications, access Settings -> Server and start the server from the ‘Status’ panel.

Fig. 13 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Quit NoMachine service

When ‘Show main window’ is clicked or the User Interface is open via Programs or Applications, the Connection Monitor Menu shows also the ‘Quit NoMachine Player’ item.

Fig. 14 – Connection Monitor (server) -> Quit NoMachine service and NoMachine Player