How CrankWheel Remote Control Supports Windows and macOS Presenters

Have you ever wished that during a screen share, you could let your viewer take over control of the web page or presentation you are showing them, and all without a download? We’re happy to announce that now you can, thanks to the launch of CrankWheel Remote Control, which is included as part of all CrankWheel plans including our free-for-life plan.

Update for 2026: CrankWheel Remote Control is now available on macOS

CrankWheel Remote Control is now available for presenters using both Windows and macOS!

This update means Mac users can now hand temporary control of a browser tab or a selected area of their screen to a customer during a CrankWheel screen-sharing session. The viewer can participate through a modern browser on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone, without downloading software or creating an account.

A small helper application must be installed on the presenter’s Windows or macOS computer to enable Remote Control. Once it is set up, the presenter can grant control during any one-to-one screen-sharing session and end that access at any time.

What macOS support means for sales and service teams

Adding macOS support makes it easier for organizations with mixed-device environments or Apple-only devices to create a consistent customer experience.

Previously, a team might have been able to use Remote Control only when a representative was working from a Windows computer. Now, both Windows and Mac users can incorporate hands-on interaction into their customer conversations.

For teams, that means:

More representatives can use the same workflow. Mac-based salespeople, customer success managers, trainers and support agents no longer need to switch devices or hand a session to a Windows user.

Prospects can participate instead of only watching. A salesperson can invite a prospect to click through a product, complete part of a workflow or try a feature during the demonstration.

Onboarding can become more hands-on. Customer success teams can guide customers through important setup steps while allowing them to complete the actions themselves.

Support conversations can be easier to follow. An agent can demonstrate a process, pass control to the customer and watch as the customer repeats it.

Teams can standardize demonstrations across operating systems. Managers can build one Remote Control playbook for representatives using either Windows or macOS.

And the best part? Customers still do not need to install anything. The helper application is installed only on the presenter’s device. The viewer joins and interacts through their browser.

Common Use Cases for CrankWheel Remote Control in Sales and Onboarding

Interactive sales demonstrations

During a software demonstration, let the prospect complete a meaningful action inside the product. They might build a report, customize a setting, enter information into a sample form or test a feature related to their use case.

The goal is not to hand over the entire demonstration. It is to give the prospect a carefully selected moment in which they can experience the product directly.

Customer onboarding

During onboarding, the presenter can demonstrate a step and then pass control to the customer so they can repeat it.

• This can work well for:
• Configuring initial account settings
• Building a first campaign or project
• Navigating a dashboard
• Entering information into a workflow
• Learning how to use an important feature

The presenter can observe, answer questions and take control back whenever additional guidance is needed.

Applications, forms and approvals

In insurance, financial services, real estate, home services and similar industries, representatives often guide customers through applications, estimates, consent forms or configuration tools.

Remote Control allows the representative to complete the appropriate portions of a process and then let the customer enter or review information when their direct participation is required.

Ask User to Verify (“E-Signature Light”)

Organizations that want to allow their customers to confirm an order, or similar, in an auditable fashion that is still lighter-weight than a full e-signature flow, can use our Ask User to Verify feature during remote control.

This involves the user entering a verification message or piece of data into a form controlled by the organization, via remote control. The organization provides the form and stores responses to it. CrankWheel provides the audit trail: If you send a text message to your viewer to join a session, we verify their phone number in our audit trail (the link is unique to their phone number and only sent to them), and then we verify whether or not they type in the target message, and also store that in our audit trail.

The target message is provided by the presenter during the session, and the customer is asked to type it in to e.g. a form. Examples of target messages might be “last four digits of social security number, followed by birth month number,” or typing “I accept: {full name}” into the form.

Best Practices for Managing Remote Control Sessions with Customers

Remote Control is most effective when it is introduced intentionally rather than used as a surprise.

1. Explain what will happen before granting control

Tell the viewer what they will be able to control and why you are giving them access.

For example:

“I’m going to let you control this part of my screen so you can try the feature yourself. You’ll only be able to interact with the area I’ve selected, and I can take control back at any time.”

This gives the viewer clear expectations and makes the transition feel comfortable.

2. Grant access only to the area the viewer needs

When sharing a browser tab, the viewer’s control is limited to the client area of that tab. When sharing the full screen, the presenter can select and resize the specific area that the viewer is allowed to control. CrankWheel displays a highlighted border around that area.

Choose the smallest practical area for the task. Avoid exposing unrelated applications, messages, customer records or internal information.

3. Prepare the demonstration environment

Before the call:

• Close unnecessary applications and browser tabs.
• Turn off desktop notifications.
• Remove unrelated customer information from the screen being shared.
• Open the correct page or account in advance.
• Use a test or demonstration account when possible.
• Confirm that the CrankWheel helper application is installed and working.

A prepared environment reduces distractions and helps protect information that should not be shown to the viewer.

4. Use a safe demonstration account when possible

For sales demonstrations and training, use an account that contains sample information rather than production data.

Avoid giving a viewer control over an environment containing confidential customer records, financial information, private communications or administrative settings unless the workflow specifically requires it and your organization has approved the process.

5. Start with a low-risk action

The first interaction should be easy to complete and unlikely to cause an unwanted change.

For example, ask the viewer to navigate between screens, select an option or enter sample text before inviting them to complete a more involved process.

6. Stay engaged while the viewer is in control

Remote Control should not replace the conversation. Continue guiding the customer, answering questions and confirming what they see.

Watch their actions and step in when needed. CrankWheel allows the presenter to see the viewer’s actions as they happen and end Remote Control at any time.

7. Train teams on approved use cases

Organizations should define when Remote Control should and should not be used.

A simple internal playbook can cover:

• Approved customer scenarios
• Information that must never be displayed
• When to use a demonstration account
• How to explain Remote Control to a viewer
• How to end a Remote Control session
• What to do if the viewer clicks the wrong item
• Industry-specific security or compliance requirements

How to build Remote Control into your team’s sales playbook?

The addition of macOS support makes Remote Control more practical as a team-wide capability rather than a feature used by only a portion of representatives.

Sales leaders can identify one or two moments in the standard demonstration where prospect participation adds value. Customer success leaders can incorporate Remote Control into onboarding checklists. Support managers can define the troubleshooting situations in which guided interaction is appropriate.

Start with a small number of repeatable use cases. Train the team, document the process and collect feedback from both representatives and customers.

The objective is not to give the viewer control as often as possible. It is to use control at the moments when participation will make a process easier to understand, easier to remember or easier to complete.

With support for both Windows and macOS presenters, more teams can now turn screen sharing from a one-way presentation into a guided, hands-on customer experience.

How to Grant Screen Control During a CrankWheel Session

Remote Control allows you to grant control to your viewer, when you are screen sharing either a browser tab or the full screen.

When you are screen sharing a browser tab, and you grant remote control, the viewer will only be able to move and click their mouse within the client area of the browser tab (the part of the browser tab that displays the web page).

When you are sharing full screen, you get to choose the area of the screen that you want them to have control over, meaning they won’t be able to move or click the mouse outside of your chosen area. The area will initially match the client area of the last browser tab you screen shared, if any. You can drag and resize the selected area so that you can for example grant control to a particular program window on your desktop.

During remote control, CrankWheel will show a blinking orange/red border demarcating the area that you’ve granted control over. As presenter, you can end remote control at any time using a keyboard shortcut, or by clicking a button in the CrankWheel control panel, or by locking your screen (i.e. by using Ctrl+Alt+Del or Win+L on a Windows machine).

Your viewer can use any browser on their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone to perform remote control. They can move the mouse, click, drag, and type in text and some common keyboard shortcuts such as for text formatting.

We also have a Remote Control guide that walks you through installation and usage on both Windows and macOS.

Use cases

Remote Control makes it extremely easy to let any viewer, without any download or preparation or training required for the viewer, control a web application, program or presentation that an agent is screen sharing to them. This makes it ideal for letting your viewer test drive software you are showing them, e.g. during a sales demo, or for showing them around their account features as part of a customer success call.

Imagine this use case: You’re in a sales demo, explaining the benefits of a website builder that your company is selling. Let’s imagine it’s a block-based builder where the user provides text and images as input into ready-made templates. When it comes time to show how to set up the first block, you might ask your prospect, “would you like to try it for yourself to see how easy it is?” and if they say yes, you start remote control of the browser tab you were sharing, and let them enter the required text by themselves, applying formatting such as bold or italic using their keyboard or on-website controls.

Or let’s say it’s a customer success call. Research shows that we learn more by doing than by watching. Instead of doing a pure screen share to show them around the various available features, why not open up an Incognito window, grant them remote control over that part of your screen, have them log into their own account and then just stay on the phone as you watch and guide them to explore all the different features? You can take over any time, passing control back and forth between you and the customer.

Limitations

Remote Control is available for presenters using both Microsoft Windows and macOS. Linux is not currently supported, and unfortunately it is technically impossible to support ChromeOS or iPad platforms.

A small helper application is required to enable Remote Control on supported desktop operating systems. The installation is quick, and you’ll be guided through it the first time you enable the feature.

Viewers on desktop or laptop devices have mostly full control over the area of your screen that you grant access to, and can input keyboard events that go to whichever window is currently focused (so you can e.g. share just the area within a tab, but let them enter an address into the URL bar by first clicking into it for them).The keyboard shortcuts they can use are limited to common shortcuts that have to do with text formatting; they can use arrow keys to move around, also in combination with modifier keys to move by word or whole lines, or to make selections with Shift. They can perform common text formatting such as making bold, italic and underline. However, actions such as copy and paste are not available as keyboard shortcuts, nor are actions that would change the context such as Alt+Tab, or Ctrl+F4 (or Command+W on macOS) which would, respectively, switch to a different application and close the current window.

Desktop viewers can left and right click, and they can drag and drop, and use dragging to select regions of text, or to move a scrollbar. More modern methods of scrolling such as using a mouse wheel or doing a two-finger scroll on their touchpad are not currently supported.

A viewer on a mobile device has slightly more limited control than a viewer on a desktop or laptop computer. They can press to simulate a left mouse-button click anywhere on the screen share, and they can perform keyboard entry by first bringing up the keyboard using a button provided in their viewing interface. The presenter can also help them by showing a more prominent keyboard button by clicking “Request Keyboard” on their end. Dragging and dropping, or dragging scrollbars, is not supported, nor are keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+B since there is no way of generating them on most mobile devices.

For now, you can only start Remote Control when you have exactly one viewer viewing your screen share.

Enabling the feature

For installation and usage instructions for Windows and macOS, please see our Remote Control guide.

To enable Remote Control, an account administrator should visit the administrative dashboard, click Edit Company, put a checkmark next to the Remote Control feature, and save.

If you need any assistance getting the feature turned on, or for any questions that come up, don’t hesitate to contact our support team at support@crankwheel.com.

If you haven’t already signed up for CrankWheel, you can do so by clicking the button below. There’s a free-for-life plan for reasonable amounts of usage.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the process for how to use CrankWheel remote control?

To use CrankWheel Remote Control, first ensure the helper application is installed on your Windows or macOS device. During a screen-sharing session, select the specific browser tab or screen area you wish to share, then grant access to the viewer through the CrankWheel control panel to initiate the interactive session.

Can viewers participate without downloading any software?

Yes, viewers can participate in CrankWheel Remote Control sessions without downloading any software or creating an account. Viewers simply join through a standard web browser on their desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone to interact with the shared screen area provided by the presenter during the live demonstration or support call.

Which operating systems support CrankWheel remote control features?

CrankWheel Remote Control is currently available for presenters using Microsoft Windows and macOS. While Linux, ChromeOS and iPad do not support hosting a session with Remote Control, viewers can join and interact with the screen-sharing session using any modern web browser on any desktop and mobile operating system, ensuring broad accessibility for customers.

How do presenters maintain security during remote control sessions?

Presenters maintain security by selecting the specific screen area or browser tab the viewer can control, which is demarcated by a visible border. Presenters can end the session at any time, and they should follow best practices like using demonstration accounts to avoid exposing confidential records or administrative settings during calls.