Control Your Windows PC With Home Assistant!

Windows users have kinda been missing out when it comes to controlling Home Assistant devices and sensors from their desktop - but no more! Find out how you can connect your Desktop or Laptop to Home Assistant using Hass.Agent - a free tool that can collect sensor information, control devices with Hotkeys and receive notifications right to your desktop!
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[@roblatour3511]

You might want to take a look at a program called Push2Run. It communicates between Home Assistant and Windows using MQTTT. Push2Run doesn't natively provide sensor data, but beyond what Hass.Agent does Home Assistant can have it run Windows programs / batch files / etc. (even in admin mode) and also send keystrokes to an application. Full disclosure, I love Push2Run because I wrote it :-).

[@mfrafael]

I love Push2Run! Nice to see you around here

[@roblatour3511]

@@mfrafael Thanks!

[@AJax2012]

THANK YOU!! I have been looking for something like this for literally years and nothing has ever worked... I started working on my own, but decided I didn't know what I was doing 🤣 This is pretty much what I imagined though, so thanks!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one, glad it was useful!

[@juliandsp]

Nice, I've been using HASS Workstation, but the developer seems to be disappeared, so will give a try to this one since it seems to have a nicer projection and development

[@makeitworktech]

I was using that one too! Could never get commands to be sent from HA

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one, enjoy and let me know how it goes!

[@atwixtor]

Same. I have a TON of HASS workstation commands and sensors. Will try this out to see if I get feature parity

[@onetick3724]

Same for me but I have issues with Wordkstation and Win11... With HASS.Agent is it possible to launch CustomCommand from HA ? Thx

[@chrisrosenkreuz23]

great stuff lad! really nice to see this project gaining traction! I try and share it everywhere I can

[@sdfhjklhsfdjdsflhkds]

I agree that this shows promise and the winner for me is the notification capability. Creating some trigger logic in Node-RED was super-easy and it works great. But, like Lewis, I'd like to see more possibilities around actionable notifications. One simple use case is front door notifications. In addition to getting an alert and a snapshot image, I'd like to be able to click on the alert and launch a new browser page with a larger version of the image, or possibly even a live view. A big ask maybe, but certainly very useful IMHO.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hopefully one day that will be possible!

[@vcrahul]

Was about to sleep. Your video notification woke me up. Nice

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You can sleep after 😂

[@tpm369]

You are the best. You always have clear steps and walk us through everything that is needed.

[@GeorgeKaranikos]

Been waiting for this. Ripper mate, thanks and well done !

[@cyberdave17]

great video as ever Lewis. Worth noting, once you install the integrations in HACS, if you don't restart before editing the configuration.yaml, when you come to check the config it gives an error that it can't find "hass_agent_notifier". I didn't want to brave clicking restart and hoping for the best so commented it out, restarted, then edited the yaml and restarted again. Hope this might help anyone else who might be tripping up at this step.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

My bad, meant to add that in as an annotation! Thanks!

[@OliVer-zv3dt]

I got so excited the first time I saw you wearing that MCM Katakana shirt in an older vid. Love your stuff mate!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hahaha been watching MCM for so long, love their videos! Thanks man!

[@piotrmachowski3391]

I have created HA Taskbar Menu and I have to admit that your approach seems to be better in every way. I might have to migrate soon :D

[@Th31Th3Only]

Been looking for something like this for a while. Not always able to ask google or load up the browser so having quick actions from my keyboard is great. Also, this could potentially work with a stream deck. I don't have one to try but it's worth looking into.

[@hoberionic]

stream deck allready has home assistant integration, works perfectly

[@ReidProjects]

Great ! I used IOT Link which is a more generic solution, but I'll definately give a try to this one, which has more Home Asssistant oriented features. Thanks !

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I've used that one too but hasn't been updated in quite a while unfortunately

[@HuffDuff101]

@@EverythingSmartHome Ahhh, that may be why my data coming into the MQTT broker is sometimes unavailable requiring a restart of the service on my client PCs...

[@SamCastillo]

I've been looking for something like this for ages! My son never remembers to turn his pc off. My leccy bill thanks you!

[@Goygle]

Using hass agent for few months to control an “on air” sign so my kids know they can’t step into my office when I am in a Teams meeting. Works like a charm. The on air sign is using wled.

[@dandixonus]

Based on if your webcam is on or off?

[@Goygle]

@@dandixonus Yes indeed. I am also using the active window as an input which works great.

[@svenmuller5950]

THAT IS SOOO SUPER AWESOME ... sorry for screaming but that is exactly what I was looking for. I was soo annoyed to open the HASS page to toggle my lights ... SUPER AWESOME ... will love you loooong time for this hint.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

THAT'S OK IM SORRY FOR SCREAMING TOO

[@tobiassdb]

How is it you always publish a video about the topic that I'm just trying to solve???? LEWIS, we talked about this! Stop reading my mind!!!!!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha I'm so sorry!!

[@elshadsabziyev]

OMG I have always wanted this thing. Spot on solution for my years long problem

[@vdmaat]

I've been using this for quite a few weeks now. Developer has been active on some of the issues I found. I have a light switch in my office with a Shelly behind it. Flipping the switch once toggles the light. Flipping it twice (on/off, or off/on), will turn the light on to a preset brightness and color temp, cast a lovelace dashboard to the Nest Hub, and start music on an Echo Dot. Flipping it three times turns off the light, stops music and lovelace cast, and sends a sleep command to my laptop through HASS.Agent. So when I'm done for the day, I can just walk away and flip the switch 3 times and everything will be powered off for me. (NodeRed handles the smarts for that on the backend). And from the HASS.Agent sensors, I have one for microphone on so that my family can see if I'm in a work meeting, or just working and forgot to take off my headset.

[@BCKammen]

This would be a great tool, thank you for the video, I want to now install, as I could use to to send notifications for battery Levels of my RV/Caravan so I know if I need to start up the generator, or start cutting power usage through my PC, than to just get notices through my phone.

[@Pinza7]

I'd love to see an update about this subject. Up to date HASS.Agent info is sadly lacking on youtube. 😁

[@CnfuD-Choticstreaming]

I am still at the infancy in incorporating smart devices in my appartment, but I would love it if I can turn my master desktop to the house brains, that pc never sleeps anyways. This seems extremely promising, especially for people that don't mind some hustle if it means customisation options. Will add to the doom pile of weekend projects! Thanks!

[@GregoryApokalypse01]

Thanks. I have setup it and for me it works

[@nathanwalledge368]

QUick question - im struggling to get a screen shot of my camera into notifications. how are you doing that? Thanks

[@MrBassistfromhell]

I'm also struggling with this.

[@raphaelcouzet8302]

Love the MCM t-shirt! :)

[@johnelliott9823]

notifications look compelling, will investigate further.

[@PetervanHofwegen]

Nice! Now I have yet another thing on my todo list........ thanks a lot!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha sorry about that!

[@guitarchitectural]

Where would you say this project stands today - is it still working and good or has it been abandoned?

[@mortenmoulder]

That's really nice. Maybe I can use that as an alternative to IoT Link, which I already use now on a Microsoft Surface tablet running Home Assistant in Edge. I only use IoT Link for waking up the screen, so maybe this can also do that.

[@atwixtor]

Can IoT link do actionable notifications ?

[@AtracBreezy]

I wrote a PowerShell script that worked with auto-hotkey to do the keyboard shortcuts for a while now. Might have to check this out tho

[@EverythingSmartHome]

It's a nice alternative!

[@abboberg987]

wow...thanks. Tried all parts right away and blasting....

[@ittoday4501]

Thank you for sharing this video!

[@brot3933]

You have a great channel:) Is it possible to view the screen off and on any motion sensor? Iotlink could do that. I am also looking for a way to rotate my views in the dashboard including auto scrolling, is that feasible with Hass Agent?

[@MrSimmetria]

Thanks! I really hope it can run apps.

[@MrSimmetria]

Well it does everything.

[@dandixonus]

I setup Hass.Agent to pause my whole house music (via 7 Chromecast devices & Spotify) when my web cam turns on (because I'm in a meeting) and resume the music when my webcam turns off (meeting is over). Thanks for making this video!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Awesome, well done!

[@junkins]

Thanks for the video. Would this be useful if I'm currently running HA on my Windows PC? I can see how using the hotkeys feature would be, just not sure about the rest.

[@KarlCollard]

Just can across this video wanting to use my Surface Go as a dashboard of sorts whuch automatically walks when approached. Has there been any significant updates to the Hass.Agent since this video? Are you still using it or have you found something better for Windows?

[@mustafacanpolat5395]

Reis eline sağlık süper olmuş :)

[@danielwolman]

this is cool, in theory i have a flic button upstairs could i press it and get hass to turn on and load my pc downstairs and open an app? so by the time i get down its all on and ready for me to use?

[@Dennis-qm4rd]

I love this Lewis! Finally somehting easy to set up which works...Well...for others. I have installed it, test connection...all good. Set up sensors, Hass.agent says "OK". Created a command, HAss.agent says "OK". But: I don't see any sensor or command in my HA server, looking at my MQTT integration? It keeps staying on the same amount of entities and devices, doesn't add anything from Hass.agent. And the dashboard of Hass.agent says: "OK" What do you advice @Everything Smart Home?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Join the discord 😅

[@salomebeshidze8376]

How did you set it up to receive snapshot of your doorbell camera?

[@pfunkPT]

what's the best way to detect if the PC is on or off? I've been using a binary sensor with a ping command but not sure if it's the best solution... I've tried IOT link. It displays several sensors but none tell me if it's on or off. And couldn't work out a rule to it. But will try this one, the shortcuts are cool!

[@Fine_i_set_the_handle]

cpu usage > 0 = pc on

[@xelemorf]

This is awesome! :D

[@anispinner]

Awesome find!

[@tobii93]

Thank you! this was good stuff

[@kbxbr]

Lewis, great video as always! Do you know if it is possible this solution work with Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa) MQTT on a external machine (like a work machine outside domestic LAN)?

[@vdmaat]

I've been using HASS.Agent for a few weeks now. In theory that should work. The connection to HA should be able to go over the Nabu Casa URL (Though I have not actually tried this). And as long as you expose your MQTT server on a port on your firewall, that should work as well. (Advisable? No. But possible yes). The big issue is for notifications, HASS (on your home network) needs to be able to talk to a port on your remote system. So on the remote firewall you'll need a port forward setup, and (hopefully) have a fixed IP, or be able to do DDNS. (Lewis mentioned putting in the IP in the config.yaml, but on my home network I just enter the computer name, as that resolved fine through internal DNS servers). If this is a work network, your IT dept may not be amenable. If this is someone else's house, you may be able to work with them to get that setup.

[@kbxbr]

@@vdmaat Thank you!

[@gokulprasadrao8893]

Hi, I was looking forward for something like this. Thank you!! But I am not receiving the notifications on my desktop, but I can receive notifications on other devices like my iphone and ipads. What can be the issue here?

[@CodySmiley]

Thanks for video!

[@adfjasjhf]

This is perfect! Does this support an action to notify hassio if the PC is locked? I was looking for that automatization for a while now but I couldn't find a proper solution

[@EverythingSmartHome]

It has a sensor for that yes 😅

[@Trevor_Green]

Nice integration. I just added this to my office. Front light turns on and off when my meeting camera activates or deactivates. Also have my office lights turn on and off based on my login state. Never wanted to put motion in here as it doubles as a guest bedroom.

[@simon0a0aubry]

Excellent video. Thanks

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks for watching!

[@trevsweb]

Cool. Looks like a well thought out app

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I agree!

[@siddarthaprasadbs]

video on personal laptop disk usage in the home assistant dashboard

[@Gamen4Bros]

Doesn't seem to work as of now. The media player seems broken .

[@pablofiscella5016]

Excelent friend. Thanks

[@AhmadHossamMahmoud]

very cool , thanks

[@jashmaniar]

Hey lewis great video I am able to use quick connections but i cannot see my device in mqtt integration.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hello, did you configure any sensors?

[@TheGarpttsr]

This seems to assume a static IP. Can it be used with a resolvable name instead? It looks pretty cool, i think i will play with it a little while that question floats in the air. Without it being able to be dynamic, i don't think most people will use it like it should/could be used.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Of course, you can use it with a DNS name or IP - it doesn't matter :)

[@TheGarpttsr]

@@EverythingSmartHome That's excellent. I wasn't sure if it had The ability to resolve. I run into a lot of weird one-offs like that while trying to build in home assistant.

[@cyberdave17]

@@TheGarpttsr I had to use IP in the mqtt user setup as it wasn't resolving my DNS. Resolved the DNS for the API setup. Odd.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Did you use http or https and a port number in the MQTT box?

[@cyberdave17]

@@EverythingSmartHome https and default 1883 in the port box.

[@DeclanMullen]

Nice,! Installed this a few weeks ago, its great. Have one issue with the notifications. throwing up windows error 87. seems to be common in windows. can't find a simple fix.. will get to it soon.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Huh that's weird, is that for any notifications or just a certain type?

[@drgonzlegnd]

im trying to making my home music studio smarter just trying to get my sound system to turn on, and also have windows open the apps I need to load with a voice command

[@atadbrooks8291]

Can you get home assistant where you are? I have looked everywhere here in US and it says not available. Do you have info about it ? When it might come back and since I know you prefer that platform, should we get something else and if so what or should we wait until it is available? Thanks

[@TheHellis]

Home Assistant is just a software. You can install it on many different computers. Such as Raspberries, NAS or a normal computer.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Yep as mentioned Home Assistant is free software and can be downloaded from any country!

[@TheHellis]

@@EverythingSmartHome North Corea might have some issues. 🙂

[@anonymoususer7985]

I would like to set my Windows PC to activate elgato key lights to my camera on the Windows PC, I am aware that this is possible and wonder if this agent is the way to go? I managed to do this with MacBook and Companion so I am all good there but very stuck with the Windows PC I am realy new to home assistant as in setiing up a mini PC on my network that is running home assistant today I have most of my devices in home assistant on the server ie blind motors and few lights and the elgato intergrated just need to link the action to the macbook and I still need to intergrate Alexa

[@GalK83]

The MQTT only works for me while setting it up with DuckDNS. I can't seems to make it work with Cloudflare tunnel. Is there anyway to set this up with Cloudflare?

[@lgg4doru430]

Hello, I tried the configuration described by you, but the Local Api is failed and MQTT failed. Can you help me? Thank you. I get the error: error trying to bind the API to port 5115

[@me217]

Can this be used to wake on lan? That way I can remotely start or shut down my pc

[@richman117]

will this add a laptop's battery as a entity in HA?

[@Eric_Tennant]

Wow. Nice. My world is complete. Well still need a starship.

[@pablofiscella5016]

Hello. I can't tell if the computer is on. I guess it is the session sensor but no matter how much I add it it does not appear in the mqtt entities

[@TheHellis]

Does it need to be installed? I can't install software on my work computer but I could see this as useful on my work computer.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Yes it does unfortunately to collect sensor info and communicate with HA

[@piotrmachowski3391]

You can try to use HA Taskbar Menu. It's not as powerful (no sensors), but it's something

[@TheHellis]

I tried to do what we used to do in the 90's. I copied the install to a USB drive (ok, 3.5 diskette) and dumped it on my work laptop. I believe it could have worked but my .Net version is too old. I doubt I can convince my IT department to install that.

[@barvadai244]

hi I coudn't connect to my mqtt... do you have a way to solve it ? it says its connected in the mqtt satellite service config but showing connecting and failed in the main screen instead of ok. please help

[@antoniodecrisci2369]

Nice! Can you add your nabu casa url instead of the local url (step5)?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You could, I'm not sure it would be a benefit unless you are outside of your house

[@LorenaSalinas21]

Is there a way to wake up the PC when its not on sleep mode? I used the WOL feature before but was wondering if this can do the same thing

[@zephirusvideos]

I have the same question. I used another method but it was not so clean

[@fibranijevidra]

Everything worked at first, but it crashes every time after it auto starts after power on. It takes a few manual starting until it works again, which makes it unusable. Too bad. Beside telemetry, the essential thing that is missing is a "Wake on LAN" feature which is working fine when adding a switch in configuration.yaml

[@tokehgekko9455]

Im having the same issue, did you figure it out?

[@ConnerHall]

I have a need to press and hold a button on my keyboard down for a set amount of time. Does anyone have a way of doing that? Again, not just a press, but a hold for x amount of time. Say 1 second just to remove the variable. Been googling around, but haven't found as easy way to do that yet. Will resume searching tomorrow.

[@krazislav]

Does this have a "screenshot" sensor? I use IOT Link for parental control, but it's a pain in specific scenarios, and the lack of updates bother me.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I believe it's on the feature request list to be added

[@neoflix59]

Thank you

[@nVIceman]

How is this compared to System Bridge?

[@Jimmypl007]

I am using "Duck DNS" and found that I could not get MQTT to connect. In the broker, I had constant "new connection" attempts from my computer (from its local IP) with the error "error: received null username or password for unpwd check" (I had the correct details) after a couple hours of searching I found out that I had to use HomeAssistants local IP for the broker IP/hostname, it started working right away. I hope this helps some people. Im not sure if this setup will cause issues down the line, but both my computer and HA have static IP's so I guess I should be good.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

If your DNS name is not resolvable with an internal IP address then you will have that problem. Follow the DNS section from my duckdns video and you won't 😅

[@Jimmypl007]

@@EverythingSmartHome Hey thanks, I will take a look again, I am not certain but I think I did that correctly, or at least I thought I had.. this very same pc connects to my HA using the duck.DNS address. And the same for all our mobile devices when local or away. (also I'm able to successfully use the duck DNS address to link the home assistant API through this application) EDIT: Hmm my router worked with the nat loopback method so I don't think I did the DNS stuff, is it safe to do the DNS stuff even though my HA connects with nat loopback? EDIT 2: Looks like others are having the same issues.. will follow them for updates'

[@carltimmons3198]

How do i do this if my HA does not have the supervisor component. I did the berry boot install

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I'm not sure what berry boot install is sorry

[@UniPer85]

Great..everything works exactly as promised. Except the notification service for my PC doesn't do anything. When I press ' Call Service' it does say it's successful but no notification appears on my PC :-(

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Are you in do not disturb mode? 😅

[@UniPer85]

@@EverythingSmartHome OMG...I feel so stupid ^_^ It's worse, notifications were turned off. But hey...it''s fixed now and it's working..thanks for the tip!

[@henrikhjelm4825]

did miss that one. tanx

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏

[@ASBoas]

I followed your video for installing the MQTT Broker addon, and then this video, but for some reason, MQTT fails to connect... It just changes from connecting to failed..

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Make sure your entering correct MQTT details with no HTTPS or port 8123 - join the discord if your stuck

[@JamieVids76]

I am trying to set this up on my laptop and on an old surface pc and my MQTT broker isn't discovering it, I can see it in mqtt explorer. Also when I bring my laptop out of sleep Hass Agent then uses roughly 70% cpu. Anyone else having issues?

[@mingleman82]

First to view - looks good!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏

[@odenkaz]

Is this the same as IoTLink?

[@AndreFG]

Very interesting software, although I have some security concerns about the ability to execute commands from homeassistant to your computer. Let's say your home network gets compromised for some reason, why can't an attacker use this software to know that you're away based on the active window sensor, use the remote webpageview to download malware and execute it using the custom command section ?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

If your home network is compromised then it's very trivial to do all of those things anyways regardless of this software

[@AndreFG]

@@EverythingSmartHome you're right, if someone was able to invade a network they are probably able to run commands anyway

[@mesutmutlu4089]

Thank you for that great integration. But I can not connect mqtt. It always failing.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

What did you enter for mqtt host?

[@mesutmutlu4089]

@@EverythingSmartHome My host is : mydomainname.keenetic.pro . I tried with local ip but i can not connect. Maybe an I have an issue with mqtt but I can use other integrations and have no problem.

[@julien.h3d]

Same things here

[@mesutmutlu4089]

It is working now. I changed host name to "192.168.1.xxx" local ip. Thats all..

[@jonathanbosanko254]

Got as far as mqtt server, whats this?

[@tedev]

guys... this looks really promising but after i installed the app... it runs for like 5 seconds and then it auto-closes. any idea why? no errors. nothing

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Which OS are you on? Is it still in the taskbar?

[@tedev]

@@EverythingSmartHome i removed everything! registry, folders, services and re-installed again.... now it works and i have to say.... DUDE! THANK YOU FOR THIS

[@knax97]

Works good, but when I use it to shut down my pc, I cant turn it back on via WakeOnLan. I have to press the power Button. Dont know why…

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Make sure you have wake on Lan enabled in your BIOS and configure a wake on Lan switch in HA

[@demorez5]

finally wanted to give this a try, but realized its abandoned as well...

[@SliphRahl]

Been using this to put my pc in sleep mode in certain conditions, like leaving the house etc ....

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one!

[@paulrockliffe2378]

Chopped.

[@xXThePr0Xx]

No update for the software since a year :(

[@marshallmann7620]

your arms are huuugeeee! 👌(bout same size as mine💪)

[@kmtsvetanov]

Hass.Agent hacked me. I used it for 3 days and after that some indian lout music was played on my PC. Need more security here... If you have any tips how? ...

[@TheMildlyCoolDad]

In the..... Config?

[@avanaraveloson5017]

You need a haircut 💈😉

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Soon! 😅

[@netquick1]

talking too much, just gonna try it - thanks for the link.

[@andresmith9585]

The title scares me a little bit😊

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha how so?