The Raspberry Pi is already an essential gadget for any lover of technology thanks to its multiple functions. So far, we have taught you how to cook your own version of Raspbian up to how to configure and start it, or which are the best operating systems you can install.

Today we will teach you how to access your Raspberry Pi and manage it from the PC or mobile devices with a cross-platform tool. It’s called VNC, and it’s available for virtually any operating system. It seems like a particularly useful method when you have operating systems like Raspbian installed in the Raspberry and you want to handle it from the PC to easily follow the steps of some tutorial.

VNC consists of two tools. On the one hand you have the VNC Viewer with which to control the Raspberry, which is available for Windows operating systems, macOS, GNU / Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome, Solaris, HP-UX or AIX. And on the other hand you have the client or VNC Server, which comes pre-installed by default in the PIXEL version of Raspbian.

So, in essence, what you have to do is connect the server on your Raspberry Pi on the one hand and then access it from the client that you have downloaded to your computer or mobile device. It’s easier than it sounds , but if you’re a beginner in the world then we’ll explain the steps you have to take.

Tune your server into the Raspberry Pi

If it is the first time you start Raspberry Pi, remember that like any other operating system, the first thing you have to do to make everything work is to make sure you have connected to the same WiFi from where you will try to access it. Once that’s done, you ‘ll have to access the Raspbian interface menu to make sure you’ve enabled the VNC server.

You will do this by clicking on the start menu above left, entering the Preferences menu and searching and running the application Raspberry Pi Configuration . In it you will see several options, but all you have to do is go to the one that puts VNC and make sure to select Enable to activate the tool.

Remember the path: Start> Preferences> Raspberry Pi Configuration> Interfaces

If you do not want to do it from the graphical environment , you can also activate the tool from the Raspbian terminal. Just type the command “sudo raspi-config”. In the menu that will appear in the terminal, go to the option Advanced Options, and from there to VNC. It will ask you if you want to activate it, and you will have to say yes and accept.

Once this is done in either of two ways the application will run and will be running automatically in the background. Now you only have to know the access IP to the Raspberry Pi. If you are using the terminal you can know it by typing ifconfig.

But if you are using the Raspbian graphical environment, which is the most common if you are just starting, just click on the application icon, which you will find on the top right. When doing this will open the application in a window in which will tell you what the IP of the Raspberry , which you will have to use later in the Viewer.

It will also give you an address from which to connect with your browser, and will indicate if there is a problem or not by putting a green indicator with the text Ready for connections when everything is working properly and everything is ready for you to access the device.

Download the VNC Viewer and access the server

Then you have to download the VNC Viewer from its official website. To do this, once you enter your page click on the operating system (or browser) where you want to use it, and just below choose between 32- and 64-bit versions and the format in which to download it. For example, in my case what I need is the x64 EXE to directly download the executable for Windows.

One of the advantages of this program is that you do not have to install it, so if you have downloaded it in .exe format you just have to run the file and you will enter the main panel, where you will see everything in white waiting for it Access the server you have enabled on the Raspberry. To do this, you only have to type the IP of the device in the search box . Yes, the same IP that the server program gave you.

When you do it for the first time, the program will show you a warning window telling you that you have no record of ever having accessed this Raspberry Pi, and will tell you a key and a phrase to check if it is the same one you have been given In the VNC Viewer application when you run it from it.

Next you will see the screen of identification, in which by default it will put you as user name that you have in your Windows session. Here the fields you have to fill in the following way, the username is pi , and as a password you will write raspberry .

If everything went well, entering the credentials will open a window with the desktop environment of the Pi. In it, you can use the mouse and keyboard of your PC to do everything you want in the device, so you can make updates, run programs and games or configure everything you want remotely.

As we said at the outset, the remote connection application is multiplatform, so once you have the IP of the Raspberry you can connect to it from any other device supported, from Macs to mobile devices.

Configure VNC on the Raspberry if you do not have a screen

Finally, if it happens that you do not have a screen on which to connect the Raspberry Pi to perform the VNC activation process, there is a way you can do it directly from the computer. All you have to do is plug it in and connect it via Ethernet to your router.

Then, on your PC you download the Adafruit Pi Finder application. Just run it and click on the Find My Pi button, then the tool will look for the Raspberry Pi that is connected in your network and its IP address to connect to it. It will also tell you what your username and password are.

Now in the same application click on the Terminal button to access the command line or terminal of your Pi, through which you can start the VNC server. Just type vncserverand press Enter. Doing so will tell you the Raspberry IP that you will have to use, as we have seen before, from the VNC Viewer.

It is very important that you know that doing so in this way will not activate the VNC server by default . To do so, once connected to the Pi you should perform the process of activating the application as we have explained a little above. Enabling it, every time you start your Raspberry this will start from the beginning the server.