Help Center · Desktop agent

Sign in with your browser

Connect a computer by signing in the way you normally do — in your browser, with whatever sign-in your workspace uses — instead of typing a password into the app or pasting a token.

Who this is for

Anyone connecting a Mac, a Windows PC or a Linux computer. All three desktop apps do this now. If you are connecting a server you reach over SSH, or any machine with no desktop, read Connect a server over SSH instead — it is the same sign-in, done with a code.

It matters most if your workspace signs in through Google, Microsoft, or your company's single sign-on. There is no password for the app to ask you for in those cases, so signing in through the browser is the only way that works without an admin issuing you a token.

Before you start

The computer has WorkMonitor installed.
You can sign in to WorkMonitor in a browser on that same computer.

Steps

Open WorkMonitor. The first screen names the machine in front of you — Connect this Mac, Connect this PC or Connect this computer — and its main button is Sign in with your browser. Select it.
Your browser opens on a WorkMonitor page. Sign in there if you aren't already.
The page asks whether to connect the computer, and names it: the app, the name the computer reported, which workspace, and which account. Check all four, then select Connect. If you're in more than one workspace, select Change next to the workspace name to pick a different one first.
The browser hands you back to the app, which asks Connect as [your name]? over your email and workspace, and says plainly that this computer will record your work for that workspace. Select Connect to finish, or Not me if that isn't your account.
On a Mac, grant Screen Recording and Accessibility when macOS asks. Nothing is captured until you do.

Nothing is saved on the computer until you select Connect on that last screen. Choosing Not me, closing the window or pressing Cancel leaves the machine exactly as it was.

What happens next

The computer is connected and appears under Your devices on the Get the agent screen. Whoever the computer was connected to also gets an email, "A new computer was connected to your WorkMonitor account", naming the computer, the workspace and the app. If one arrives and it wasn't you, tell your workspace admin — they can disconnect it.

You have around 10 minutes to choose Connect in the browser, and the whole request stops being usable after 20.

Why that last screen matters

It is the one thing standing between a link and a stranger. Anyone who gets you to open a connect link and approve it can attach your computer to their workspace, where they would see your work. The screen exists so you can read the name, the email and the workspace before anything is written, and say Not me if you don't recognise them. Read it rather than clicking through it.

If it doesn't work

The browser didn't open. The app keeps the link on screen with Open the page again and Copy link. Open it yourself. Don't send it to anyone — anyone who opens it and signs in can connect that computer to their own account.
The hand-back doesn't arrive, or you are on a machine with no browser. Select Enter a code instead, then in the browser select Show a code and type the code it shows into the app. It's good for about 5 minutes, it can only be used once, and five wrong tries lock the request. Never read it out or send it to anyone.
You went back, or closed the tab, after choosing Connect. Reopen the page and select Show a code.
"That request expired. Start again." The request outlived its 20 minutes. Select Sign in with your browser again.
"Your workspace needs you to sign in again the way it requires." Your workspace no longer accepts the sign-in method your browser session used — sign in again in the browser the way it asks, then start again.
Your browser asks before letting the page reach the app. Some browsers now ask before a web page may reach a program running on your own computer. Allow it. If you'd rather not, use Enter a code instead — it never needs that permission.
Your account uses two-factor authentication. Signing in through the browser handles it in the browser, like any other sign-in. If you use Other ways to connect instead, the app tells you to sign in through the browser, because the Mac and Windows apps have no field for a two-factor code. On a Linux terminal, the email-and-password path does ask for the code.
You'd rather not use the browser at all. Select Other ways to connect on the first screen. Email and password are still there, and so is the enrollment-token field, with a token you generate on the Get the agent screen.

Connect a server over SSH
Install on a Mac
Which operating systems does WorkMonitor support?
Your devices
The agent isn't connecting