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Virtual Desktop

Panelica 1.0.375 Verified 2026-07-23 App Hosting

Virtual Desktop gives ROOT a full graphical desktop on the server, inside the browser: an XFCE environment with Chrome, a terminal and a file manager, streamed over VNC through the panel's own HTTPS port. It is built for administrator chores that want a real browser on the server: testing a site from the server's own network, walking a wizard that only works locally, or grabbing something over a GUI.

Panel locationVirtual Desktophttps://YOUR-SERVER-IP:8443/remote-access/desktop

Virtual Desktop

Status

Running

VNC Display

:99

VNC Port

5999

Access

Via Panel

Live desktop renders here (embedded viewer) · Open in New Window

Install once, start when needed

The page begins as an installer: one click sets up XFCE, TigerVNC, noVNC and Google Chrome on the server with a live, streamed progress dialog (a few minutes on first install). After that it is a simple switch: Start brings the desktop up, Stop tears it down (with a warning that unsaved work in desktop apps is lost), Restart bounces it, and Uninstall removes the packages.

While running, the desktop fills the page as an embedded viewer with clipboard support, and an Open in New Window button pops it into its own 1920x1080 window. The resolution is fixed at 1920x1080, and the desktop scales to fit the viewer.

What you get

An XFCE session with Google Chrome (plus a desktop shortcut and a welcome page on first launch), a terminal, the Thunar file manager, a text editor and a task manager. The session runs as the server's root account and its files live in /root, so anything you download or configure on the desktop persists between sessions.

Behind the scenes: the desktop is installed natively on the host (no container): a TigerVNC server renders the XFCE session on a free display, websockify bridges it to a local-only port, and the panel's own Nginx proxies it under /novnc/ on the panel port. Your browser therefore talks to the desktop over the panel's HTTPS 8443: no extra ports need to be opened for access through the panel. Status is detected live from the running processes, and starting is idempotent: if a desktop is already up, Start simply reconnects you.

Treat it as a ROOT power tool. The desktop session runs as root on the server itself, and each session gets a fresh random VNC password, shown on the page when you press Start. The raw VNC port binds to localhost only, so the sole path to the desktop is the panel's authenticated HTTPS, stop the desktop when you are done, and remember that a server desktop is a convenience for administration, not a workstation for daily browsing.

Note also that the desktop does not auto-start after a server reboot; open the page and press Start again when you need it.

Access

Strictly ROOT-only, at every layer: the menu entry, the route and each backend operation all require the ROOT role, so ADMIN, RESELLER and USER never see it. It is also one of the pages covered by High Security Mode, demanding a fresh 2FA verification for the ROOT session when that mode is enabled (see roles and permissions). Licensing follows the SSH-access feature.

Panelica Documentation · Written and verified against the live panel. · Last verified 2026-07-23 on Panelica 1.0.375