Modders Enabled GeForce Now Desktop Mode With a Clever Workaround
If you’ve ever wanted to run something other than games on an Nvidia gaming server, now’s the time to try. Modders have managed to unlock the ability to access the Windows desktop running under every instance of a GeForce Now streaming session, letting them run apps they wouldn’t have been able to while in game, VideoCardz reports.
GeForce Now is Nvidia’s streaming platform, which charges $10 or $20 a month (depending on your desired resolution, frame rate, and session length) for access to a library of several thousand games. Its used by tens of millions of players all over the world and has helped prove the game streaming model genuinely works. But it is specifically designed for gaming, not for everyday desktop access.
The latter is exactly what modders Zotros and dpadGuy have gotten to work. The pair used the game Trove to dump them back to the desktop by replacing the executable file with one that sends them to the desktop instead of launching the game.
The desktop they reached is pretty standard. It’s running a customized taskbar and Wallpaper Engine. One of the modders showed the Nvidia server running an AI tool called LM Studio.
It’s a pretty locked-down desktop experience, however. It blocks browser downloads and everything is wiped when a session ends, so anything you install needs to be installed again. Some users claim the path is already patched.
It’s certainly not something Nvidia ever intended to be accessible and it will absolutely block this at some point, if it hasn’t already.
The flip side of this discovery is that it’s a real desktop mode—effectively, a functional desktop computer. What’s to stop Nvidia from extending its game streaming service to also include desktop mode? Why bother having a computer at all, when a phone connected to a display and streams a desktop on the other side of the world will do?
I like to own my hardware enough to not like the idea of that, but as electronics become more expensive, subscription-based “ownership” and leasing systems may become more the norm.
