Windows app

Safe-Desk for the desktop AI apps.

The browser extension covers AI sites in Chrome and Edge. Desktop apps such as ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft 365 Copilot don't run in the browser, so a small tray app covers them: it checks what staff paste into those apps through the same Safe-Desk gate, and puts real values back when an answer is pasted somewhere else.

Do you need it?

Only if staff use an AI app installed on Windows. If everyone uses AI in Chrome or Edge, the extension is enough. If some people use both, install both; they don't interfere.

Install and remove

The program asks for no administrator rights when it runs (its manifest requests asInvoker). It needs no runtime installed alongside it (no .NET, Java or browser engine); it uses Windows' own networking, clipboard and data protection.

Sign-in

Available after launch After install the tray icon shows the app is signed out. The person chooses Sign in; the app opens Safe-Desk in their default browser, where they sign in and choose Allow, and the browser hands the result back to the app on this computer only. This is OAuth with PKCE and a loopback address (http://127.0.0.1 or [::1], path /callback, on a port the app picks each time), the pattern RFC 8252 describes for desktop apps. The server accepts it only for Safe-Desk's own Windows app. The app receives a device credential for that Windows account and keeps it protected with Windows data protection, readable only by that user on that computer. The computer then appears among the person's devices in Settings, where it can be signed out.

Available after launch Each Windows user signs in separately; the credential is kept per Windows account.

What it gates

The app watches which window has the focus and checks the clipboard when a paste goes into an AI app.

The browser rule works from the window title, which is a best effort: a tab whose title doesn't name the product isn't caught by the app. In Chrome and Edge the extension covers those pages anyway; in Firefox and other browsers the title is the only signal.

Taskbar, Alt+Tab, the tray overflow and Safe-Desk's own windows are ignored, so switching through them doesn't count as leaving the AI app.

The Office setting

Available after launch Copilot lives in a side pane inside Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint, and the app can't tell a paste into that pane from a paste into the document. So Office apps are gated only when the firm's device policy turns on gating Office apps (shown in Owner view as {{OFFICE_POLICY_SETTING}}). The app reads the policy each time it checks in, so a change reaches every computer without reinstalling. With it on, every paste into those apps is checked, which also catches pastes into ordinary documents and emails. Most firms leave it off unless staff use Copilot in Office.

Keyboard shortcut

Available after launch The app registers one keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+Space by default. It can be changed to another combination that includes Ctrl, Alt or Win; a plain key or Shift alone is refused so the app can't take over normal typing. What the shortcut does will be described here at launch.

What it stores and sends

Available after launch As designed; confirmed against the released build at launch.

• It sends pasted text to desk.sophiaxt.com to be checked, the same gate the extension uses, and receives the placeholder version.
• It finds placeholders in text with the same shape as the extension and the server: a bracket, letters, an underscore, one to four digits, a bracket, such as [SSN_1].
• It writes no clipboard contents to disk or to a log. If the app fails, it ends quietly, with no crash report that could carry clipboard contents.

Troubleshooting

More in Troubleshooting.