Most work in OpenShare happens in the browser console: channels, messages and dashboards from any browser. Some people still want the desktop Administrator. They have used it for years and know its channel editor by heart. Until now, reaching it from outside the building meant one of the setups in our remote access post: a VPN profile, a jump box, or an admin port open to the internet.
The OpenShare Administrator Launcher is for them. It is a desktop app for Windows and Linux. You sign in with your OpenShare account, pick one of your servers, and the launcher opens that server’s Administrator on your own machine, through OpenShare. The engine keeps dialing out, as it already does for the console, so no admin port opens to the internet and there is no jump box to RDP into.
How the launcher works
- Sign in with your OpenShare account. The launcher opens your browser for the sign-in, the same one you use for the console.
- Pick a server. It lists your OpenShare servers and the access you have to each.
- Connect. The launcher fetches that server’s Administrator through OpenShare and starts it.
- Sign in to the Administrator with your user name and password on that engine, as you always have.
You can open several servers at once, and each gets its own Administrator. Once you are in, the engine’s own users and passwords still apply, on top of the access level OpenShare gives your connection.
Same rules as the console
The launcher goes through the same checks as Connect in the OpenShare console, so the policy your organization set for a server applies to the desktop Administrator in full.
- Read-only stays read-only. On a read-only connection the server refuses changes, and some parts of the Administrator do not work. The launcher warns you before it opens a read-only session.
- Session approval still applies. If your organization requires approval for each session, the launcher requests it, waits, and opens the Administrator as soon as someone approves.
A desktop client gets no side door. If the console would refuse the session, the launcher refuses it too.
Signed, and strict about what it runs
The Windows installer and the launcher are signed with Saga IT’s EV code-signing certificate, so Windows names Saga IT, LLC as the verified publisher when you install it. The Linux downloads are not code-signed, so check them against the SHA-256 the console lists.
The launcher is as strict about the Administrator it starts. The desktop Administrator is a set of Java files that the engine serves, and the launcher checks their signatures before it runs them:
- Signed by Saga IT: the launch goes ahead.
- Unsigned: the launcher asks before it runs them.
- Signed by another publisher, such as a plugin vendor: the first time the launcher sees that signer on a server, it stops and asks. Accept it once and the launcher remembers it for that server. The dialog defaults to Cancel, because a swapped file looks exactly like a new signer.
What you need
- A Windows x64 or Linux x64 computer. There is no macOS version. There is no Java to install either: each download carries its own runtime.
- An OpenShare account with admin access to the server. If Connect works for a server in the console, the launcher works for it too. Admin access to your own servers is free.
- A server on OpenShare Engine 4.6.0-8 or later. JavaFX security releases since July 2026 broke the Administrator’s channel tag field, and saving a channel on an engine without the fix can clear its tags. OpenShare Engine 4.6.0-8 and later carry the fix.
Where to get it
In the OpenShare console, open a server and select Administrator Launcher, next to Connect. The dialog lists the Windows installer, the Linux installer and a Linux archive, each with its size and SHA-256, so you can check the file before you run it. The console’s Downloads page has the launcher too, and the same files are attached to the OpenShare Engine 4.7.0-1 release on GitHub.
One installation opens every server you have access to, not only the one you downloaded it from. The launcher does not update itself, and the console always offers the latest version. The launcher guide covers checking the download, installing on each platform, and removing it.
Connecting directly inside the network
Inside the building you can skip OpenShare altogether. Add an engine by its HTTPS address and the launcher connects to it directly, without signing in. Unless the engine’s certificate is publicly trusted, the first connection shows the certificate’s SHA-256 fingerprint for you to compare, and from then on the launcher accepts only that certificate. The OpenShare Engine 4.6.0-8 requirement applies here too.
Where it fits
The browser console stays the everyday path: nothing to install, any machine, the same access controls. The launcher is for the people on your team who want the desktop Administrator, and it reaches the server the way the console does.
Neither one asks you to change your network. If your team has a VPN, it keeps working, and OpenShare is another way in. For how outbound-only access compares with VPN profiles, jump boxes and open ports, see Remote Access to Mirth Connect Without Opening Ports.
To try it, create a free account, connect a server, and open it from the launcher.