Dated source reference. Current release status: handoff state. Full original relative paths are in the developer archive.

Windows console access and headless sign-in

Current scope (October13,2026): Windows-first deep editing and a public extension API; Mac/Linux compatibility follows later. Earlier native-port goals and next-step proposals in this evidence history are superseded. Technical observations and verification limits remain as recorded.

Historical desktop setup evidence captured October12,2026. Use SSH for builds, transfers and debugging, with RustDesk for the actual console, game menus and visual checks. This is reference-host infrastructure; no native-game milestone follows from it.

Current access checkpoint — October15,2026

Current editing/control host is MacStudio; runtime/build/test host is Dell. Preserve ssh optiplex. Use tools/connect_windows_desktop.py for the existing SSH loopback/RustDesk1.5.0 route. Private credentials stay outside project logs. Old MacBook CUA bindings are not guaranteed in the current app; discover available tools before relying on them. Ordinary userEnter advancedTitle in36cr/36ct; automated input worked afterTitle, whose automation root cause remains unresolved.

Historical roster closeout22:33:25UTC left game/debugger/APIstopped,stable35/all95savehashes and artworkhostingpreserved. The private capacity candidate's unique files/windowed config/original backup are now retained in the cleanup73 restore archive; roster-game37j is no longer unpacked. API0.2.0.dev36/ABI14/eventABI4,collegeprofile4/courtdefinition3 describe that earlier checkpoint, not current delivery. Read current state and verification before resuming. No extra livewatching/publicreleasepackage is required for the documentation task.

Historical verified desktop access

October15 follow-up while the user was away: console-free Windows input, launched with existing Dell pythonw.exe, advanced37aa through title/profile loading to Home and loaded stock Roster1. Single Enter with a five-second settle was not repeatable on fresh fullscreen37ap. Mac CG/System Events attempts did not establish a reliable title route. The isolated research game was then set to windowed1280×720, preserving its original Config.cfg in roster-capacity37a/live-ax/Config-original.cfg; reference-game settings were untouched. A bounded pair of220ms Enter pulses two seconds apart reached Home on six fresh runs37ax/37bq/37bt/37bv/37bz/37ca without human input or Mac focus changes. Input receipts and 37bq Home capture record the evidence.

Use python3 tools/windows/send_game_input.py --run CURRENT_OWNED_RUN --key enter --settle 1 --hold-ms 220 --repeat 2 after observing intro/title in that isolated setup, then inspect the screen. The helper validates exact process creation time/path/DLL, interactive session, the titled NBA2K14 window rather than D3DProxyWindow, and stable focus before each pulse. Menu commits use single100ms keys; navigation supports bounded1–8step batches with focus checks before each. In QuickGame, normal6 opens help, brackets change teams, and the literal comma/period keys switch jerseys. Left/right arrows did not switch jerseys in37ca. Current helper SHA 6aa71e1d1c64dd3b5b5085bfa71c660bf0d55dbc8e2dcc979307a4e7e6c88009 includes those keys. Input receipts retain the helper hash used for each step. Timing and windowed mode changed together; neither the root cause nor universal fullscreen reliability is established. The previous manual-title prerequisite is superseded for this observed research route.

October15 roster-research update: user enabled screen recording on MacStudio. Fresh capture succeeded immediately without quitting/reopening Paseo. tools/control_windows_desktop.py --output PATH.png captures only the connected RustDesk window and does not select it; recent captures took about0.14–0.23seconds. Mac-side input requires explicit --foreground, and its keyboard delivery remains unverified. Use background Mac capture plus the console-free Dell launcher above for guarded menu input while the user works in other Mac windows; the older analysis/roster-capacity/send_game_keys.py --no-capture remains a fallback. This input route operates in the Windows interactive session and can restore/focus the game there. It does not require RustDesk to own Mac focus. Minimized/closed RustDesk requires the existing Dell-side capture fallback. Do not restart Paseo or other active tasks to apply permission changes that already work.

Installed official RustDesk 1.5.0 on the Dell and Mac. Windows service runs automatically as LocalSystem; Mac client is native ARM64. The remote Windows desktop is visible through the authenticated connection. CUA clicked Start, typed notepad into Windows search and dismissed it with Escape, verifying mouse, text entry and key delivery. No permission changes were needed on the Mac for these tests. No game was launched during this setup. User reported the desktop was up; we did not establish the mechanism that unlocked it.

Original packages are archived in resources/research-tools/packages/. GitHub release digests matched local hashes:

Windows Authenticode verified Valid, signer PURSLANE. Mac deep/strict code signing and Gatekeeper assessment succeeded; notarized Developer ID identifies zhou huabing, team HZF9JMC8YN. Exact receipts, release metadata, settings, signer details and download URLs are in analysis/windows/remote-desktop/. tools/windows/setup_rustdesk.ps1 records installation/configuration. Its installer Start-Process -Wait initially waited on a spawned GUI child; closing the identified installer UI child allowed completion. The service was preserved.

Official sources: release 1.5.0, client documentation, Mac client, advanced settings. Archived tagged core_main.rs confirms CLI configuration and connection syntax. RustDesk was selected for cross-platform console operation alongside SSH; high-frame-rate game streaming and audio have not been evaluated.

Connection route and configuration

Direct Mac RustDesk access to 10.10.10.10:21118 returned OS error 65, although a plain TCP probe succeeded. A Mac local-network permission issue is a hypothesis, not a confirmed cause. The verified route uses a loopback SSH forward:

ssh -N -o BatchMode=yes -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes \
  -L 127.0.0.1:21119:127.0.0.1:21118 optiplex

Connect RustDesk to 127.0.0.1:21119. The current tunnel process metadata is analysis/windows/remote-desktop/tunnel.json; check the process and bound port before starting another. It is not an automatically restarted tunnel. SSH provides encrypted transport. No router forwarding or public relay is used for this session.

The dedicated RustDesk password is in ~/.local/share/openhoops/private/rustdesk-password on this Mac, mode 0600, outside the project. Do not print it, copy it into the knowledge base, or dump unredacted RustDesk logs/configuration: CLI connection arguments may appear in application logs. It is independent of the Windows account's blank password. The temporary plaintext transfer file on Windows was deleted after configuration.

Readback confirmed direct-server=Y, approve-mode=password, verification-method=use-permanent-password, allow-logon-screen-password=Y, enable-lan-discovery=N, and custom-rendezvous-server=127.0.0.1. The latter prevents normal public rendezvous use on the host. Whitelist and installer-created inbound RustDesk firewall rule are restricted to 10.10.10.118 (this Mac at setup) and 127.0.0.1. They have not been narrowed to loopback alone. SSH configuration is unchanged, SHA-256 870a4450ca84a1ea7b57ab082d26f7b0fc2d8aef12bb4ff5d06a986c00b0e38d.

User-requested automatic sign-in

User explicitly requested removing the future lock screen and enabling automatic sign-in, and stated brent has no Windows password. tools/windows/enable_headless_logon.ps1 verified the enabled local account, saved typed before-state and applied:

• Winlogon AutoAdminLogon="1", DefaultUserName="brent", DefaultDomainName="WINDOWS", and a present but empty DefaultPassword string. No account password change.
• Machine NoLockScreen=1 and InactivityTimeoutSecs=0.
• User EnableGoodbye=0, ScreenSaveActive="0", ScreenSaverIsSecure="0".
• Existing AC wake-password setting verified disabled; DC remains unchanged at 1.

Every modified value's type and content were read back successfully. Evidence: analysis/windows/headless-logon.json and headless-logon-ssh.log. SSH configuration hash stayed unchanged. No reboot, sign-out or live autologon test was performed; configuration verified, automatic sign-in after reboot unverified. NoLockScreen removes the decorative lock screen; it does not itself log in or prevent an explicit manual lock. Screensaver/Dynamic Lock/inactivity settings address automatic locking. Do not claim that every possible Windows sign-in trigger is disabled.

Sources: Microsoft automatic logon configuration, lock-screen policy mapping. Microsoft requires the DefaultPassword value to exist; actual blank-password behavior on this installed Windows build remains to be confirmed at the next reboot.

To undo this step precisely, use each entry in the receipt's before array: restore its recorded registry type/value when present=true, otherwise remove only that named value. Do not delete entire keys. Previous AC wake-lock/screensaver changes have their own earlier receipts in Windows reference notes.

October 14 remote input recovery

Game menu control restored using RustDesk 1.5.0 Input source 2 / Map mode and explicit CUA key holds of 180–300 ms (mouse clicks 200–250 ms). Default-duration events were unreliable. Read back the selected backend after testing. Mac client was restarted during diagnosis; source1 modes did not restore input. No Windows service restart, permission change, driver install or SSH change was necessary. This is a tested operating workaround, not a proven explanation of the underlying event loss.

Verified in Windows: Backspace deletes a character and Escape dismisses Create new task. Verified in stable35a NBA 2K14: Enter advances the title, Escape opens the menu, Up/Down navigate, Enter opens exit confirmation, Space confirms normal exit. Ctrl+A remained unreliable (appended a); do not claim all modifier shortcuts fixed. Use explicit pressKey(key, {durationMs:220}) for menu controls and inspect the resulting screen. Longer holds can repeat navigation, so choose 180 ms for arrows. This session did not test gameplay controls.

Evidence: analysis/windows/input-repair-20261014/verification.json, screenshots, tagged official RustDesk source, and hashed manifest. Game PID648, launch11:09:45UTC; normal exit observed. Cleanup11:12:53UTC verified all95baseline saves, stable35a DLL and original executable hashes, no game process, unchanged SSH configuration hash. A disposable local TextEdit document verified Mac Enter locally and was saved with this evidence.

October14,2026 follow-up: after the guarded Dell recovery reboot (reboot36ag.ps1/.log), console brent was active without user sign-in and research36ah reached a deliberately selected exhibition. Automatic sign-in is now observed on that reboot; earlier configuration-only verification remains historical. No additional logon/SSH policy changed. Evidence: analysis/college-rules/launch36ah.log, native-final36ah.log, cleanup-receipt36ah.json. A later second-launch pre-window graphics/startup wait is tracked separately, not an authentication failure.