LocalTV Remote is a software designed to turn your phone into a wireless mouse, keyboard, scroll wheel, and volume control for your Windows PC. It allows you to pair devices over LAN by scanning a QR code, with no accounts, cloud storage, or Chromium required. The compact installer is under 27 MB, making it lightweight and easy to deploy.
Key Features:
Wireless Mouse & Keyboard Control: Use your phone as a trackpad and keyboard to navigate and type on your PC.
Volume Remote: Adjust system volume directly from your phone via Core Audio.
LAN-only Operation: Data stays local, ensuring privacy without cloud reliance.
Multi-user Support: Multiple phones can control the same PC simultaneously.
QR + PIN Pairing: Secure connection with token storage for future use.
Winget Installation: Install using winget install LocalTV.Remote for a seamless experience.
Target Audience and Benefits:
Ideal for tech-savvy users seeking a reliable, private remote control solution. It benefits families or small offices by enabling simultaneous control from multiple devices without performance overhead.
README
Control your Windows PC from your phone — LocalTV Remote
LocalTV Remote is a free, open-source app that turns your phone into a wireless mouse, keyboard, and volume remote for any Windows 10/11 PC or laptop — over your local Wi-Fi.
You only install it on the PC. Your phone just opens a web page (a PWA in the browser), so there's nothing to install on the phone — or on any other device you use to control the PC. No app store, no second download.
Multiple people can control one PC at the same time — everyone uses their own phone as their own remote, so there's no single remote to pass around the room. It's LAN-only: no cloud relay, no accounts, and your data never leaves your network. The PC runs a single Node process at ~25–40 MB RAM with no bundled Chromium.
> LocalTV Remote is the open-source, remote-only companion to LocalTV. It contains no Chromium, no DRM, and no TV/streaming mode — just the remote-control daemon.
Looking for a free, open-source alternative to Unified Remote or Remote Mouse? Most phone-as-remote apps make you install a companion app on both your phone and your PC, lock features behind a paid tier, or route input through their cloud. LocalTV Remote doesn't.
LocalTV Remote
Typical alternatives*
Price
✅ Free & open-source (Apache 2.0)
💰 Freemium / paid Pro
App to install on your phone
✅ None — opens in the browser (PWA)
📲 Companion app required
Control one PC from several phones at once
✅ Yes
⚠️ Usually one device / limited
Secure pairing built in (QR + PIN)
✅ Yes
⚠️ Varies
Cloud / account required
✅ No — LAN-only, private
☁️ Often cloud-assisted
Footprint on the PC
✅ ~27 MB, no Chromium
📦 Often heavier
Source code you can audit
✅ Yes
❌ Closed-source
*Reflects common free tiers of popular alternatives; their features may change. Compare for yourself.
Features
🖱️ Phone as a wireless mouse
Move, click, right-click, scroll — a phone trackpad with DPI-aware scaling
⌨️ Phone as a keyboard
Type text and send key combos to your PC from your phone
🔊 Volume remote
Control Windows system volume from your phone via Core Audio (COM)
📱 No app to install
Phone opens a web page (PWA), installs as a home-screen app — no app store
👥 Multi-user control
Several phones can control one PC at once, each paired separately
🔗 QR + PIN pairing
Scan once, token is remembered for future sessions
🔒 LAN-only & private
No cloud relay, no accounts, no data leaves your network
🪶 Tiny footprint
~27 MB installer, ~25–40 MB RAM at idle, no Chromium
🖥️ System tray
Sits in the tray; optional start-on-login toggle
🔌 Auto port
Free-port fallback if 3000 is occupied — QR auto-updates
Install
Option 1 — winget (recommended)
Now available on the Windows Package Manager — installs without the SmartScreen prompt:
Latest release: v0.1.1 · Windows 10/11 · ~27 MB. Download the installer, run it, and you're paired in under a minute. Already installed? Grab the link above to update to the latest version.
The setup wizard will:
Install to %ProgramFiles%\LocalTV Remote
Create a Start Menu shortcut
Add a Windows Firewall inbound rule (so your phone can reach the daemon without a popup)
Optionally create a desktop shortcut and enable start-on-login
> First run shows a Windows SmartScreen "unknown publisher" notice (the installer isn't code-signed yet). Click More info → Run anyway to continue.
How to use
Launch — double-click the tray icon or start from the Start Menu
Pair — a pairing window opens with a QR code and a 6-digit PIN
Scan — open your phone camera, scan the QR code
Control — the phone browser opens the controller UI; swipe to move, tap to click
Your phone remembers the pairing token — next time it reconnects automatically.
Input is injected OS-wide via SendInput — works in any app including games and full-screen windows
Volume uses a persistent PowerShell STA process talking to Windows Core Audio COM directly — accurate to the system tray to within ±1%
The pairing window uses the system WebView2 runtime (pre-installed on Windows 11, auto-installed on Windows 10) — no bundled browser
Security
LAN-only — binds 0.0.0.0 for control but restricts pairing routes (/host, /api/state) to loopback, so the PIN is never served to other devices on the network
6-digit pairing PIN derived from machine identity; trusted sessions resume via a stored token
WebSocket origin checks on every upgrade
Rate limiting — 500 messages/sec/client; idle clients are disconnected after inactivity
Single-instance lock — second launch exits cleanly instead of conflicting
Build from source
Requirements: Node.js 22+, Windows 10/11
git clone https://github.com/creationsofm7/localtv-remote
cd localtv-remote
npm install
Windows is the only supported target today. The input layer is abstracted behind SystemInputBackend (src/core/main/input/backends/input-backend.ts). Adding macOS/Linux means implementing that interface — contributions welcome.
Contributing
Fork and clone
npm install && npm run dev
Make changes, run npm run typecheck to verify
Open a PR — CI will typecheck on push
FAQ
How do I control my laptop from my phone without installing an app?
Install LocalTV Remote on your Windows PC (it's the only device that needs anything installed). Launch it, scan the QR code with your phone's camera, and your phone's browser opens a controller page — a trackpad, keyboard, and volume remote. Nothing to install on the phone, no app store, no account.
Can multiple people control one PC at the same time?
Yes. Several phones can connect at once, and everyone uses their own phone as their own remote — so there's no single remote to toss around the room. Each phone pairs independently and securely. Handy for a shared screen, a meeting room, or a media PC.
Is there a free, open-source alternative to Unified Remote or Remote Mouse?
LocalTV Remote is exactly that: free, Apache-2.0 open-source, with no companion app required on the phone and no paid tier. See the comparison above.
Is controlling my PC from my phone over Wi-Fi safe?
It's LAN-only — input never leaves your local network and there's no cloud relay or account. Pairing requires a 6-digit PIN derived from machine identity, WebSocket connections are origin-checked, traffic is rate-limited, and the pairing PIN is only served to the PC itself, never to other devices. See Security.
Does it work in games and full-screen apps?
Yes. Input is injected OS-wide via Win32 SendInput, so it works in any app, including games and full-screen windows.
License
Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.
Copyright 2026 Mudit Pandey.
