What is novnc?

noVNC lets you access and control a remote computer right from your web browser, without needing to install any special software. Normally, to view another computer's screen over a network, you'd use a tool called VNC that requires a dedicated desktop application. This project brings that same capability into a browser tab, and it works on both regular computers and mobile devices like phones and tablets. Behind the scenes, it translates the standard VNC communication protocol into web-friendly technology that browsers already understand. One key difference from a traditional VNC client is that it uses WebSockets to maintain a live connection between the browser and the remote machine. If your existing remote server doesn't natively support WebSockets, a companion proxy tool called websockify bridges the gap. The project supports a wide range of authentication methods, image compression formats, and quality-of-life features like clipboard copy/paste, local cursor rendering, and touch gestures for mobile screens. This tool is primarily aimed at people building platforms where users need remote access to desktops. For example, cloud computing platforms like OpenStack and OpenNebula use it so their users can interact with virtual machines directly through a web dashboard. A company offering remote IT support could use it to let technicians view a client's screen from any browser. It is also useful for anyone who wants to access their own office computer from a personal laptop or phone while traveling. The project is built to be flexible. You can use it as a standalone web application, or developers can embed the underlying JavaScript library directly into a larger product. It also offers a packaged installation method for Linux systems that can run multiple connection services at once, routing different browser ports to different remote machines.