Starting GUI programs via OpenSSH on Windows?

Question

I'm trying to execute a labview VI, launching that from a .bat file, called via ssh, from another Windows machine. So I do

 ssh myuser@IP
 cd  Desktop
 launchVis.bat

I connect with user and password. myuser have all the rights to launch the batch file. Meanwhile I check the execution via RDP connection on the same machine.

If I run the bat file from a cmd line on the remote machine, the VI starts normally If I run the bat file from the ssh connection, i can see the output of echoes in the bat file but LabVIEW will be launched in a different session from RDP-TCP#1. The result is that I can see a "LabVIEW" process started in a Session named Services, but I cannot see the VI executing and in general, I don't know IF is executing or not.

Googling about the problem, It seems that I cannot avoid to start processes in "Services" Session and, for this reason, I cannot launch any GUI Program via SSH. Suggested solutions are using PsExec or, maybe a third part of ssh Server (with a third part ssh Server I reached my goal over Windows 7)

Answer 1

Running SSHd as a service makes launching desktop applications difficult, because a service has no access to the user desktop (Windows Station, WinSta0) link

Option 1: Start SSHd as a user

• This fails with the latest OpenSSH implementation with fork of unprivileged child failed, as running SSHd as a user is no more possible since OpenSSH 7.5 released in 2017 link
• Use an old implementation or a fork of OpenSSH, e.g. dropbear, FreeSSH or similar

Option 2: Use a launcher that has access to the Windows Station

On Windows, there are 2 options left to launch desktop applications over SSH: link to Github OpenSSH issue

• schtasks
• psexec on localhost

Usage:

ssh user@host "psexec -i 1 mydesktoplauncher.bat"

See psexec documentation for optional arguments like -i 1

Answer 2

The "solution", using a third party ssh server is this:

1. Uninstall the Optional Feature "OpenSSH Server" of Windows10
   
2. Download and install the third party ssh server. I used freeSSHd
   
3. DO NOT install this software AS AS SERVICE.
   
4. Set users allowed in the Settings of the software.
   
5. Put a link to the exe of this software in the shell::startup folder, so it will be run at startup.
   

In that way, the ssh server will be launched as user and CAN execute GUI programs.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to achieve the same goal with the Windows official OpenSSH server, because it fail to be launched as User, but seems working only as a Service