NVIDIA cloud game GeForce NOW was cracked! Unlock the complete Windows desktop: you can also run AI

Kuai Technology reported on August 10 that NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service GeForce Now was recently cracked. The developer successfully broke through its game session environment, accessed the complete Windows desktop, and even ran a local AI model in it. GeForce Now itself does not provide users with freely usable virtual machines. Instead, it starts a session in the cloud, allowing only access to supported games and necessary clients such as Steam. The underlying Windows system is hidden from users. However, developers Zortos and dpadGuy successfully broke through this limitation. Zortos demonstrated complete Windows desktop access at the end of July. The breakthrough was achieved through Trove games on GeForce Now and Steam. This method uses a mechanism within the Steam session to launch an unexpected executable file, thereby entering the regular Windows desktop with taskbar and desktop icons. dpadGuy also developed the open source project SalsaNOW for running applications within a GeForce Now session. Of course, the breakthroughs did not stop at the desktop. On August 7, Zortos demonstrated running LM Studio on a GeForce Now instance to load a local AI model. The test used the Google Gemma 4 31B model, and achieved an inference speed of about 41 Token/second on the Ultimate member instance. However, this method still has limitations. First, the GeForce Now session length is limited. After the end, the environment will be reset, programs and data need to be redeployed, the browser download function is restricted, and GeForce Now cannot be used in some areas. In addition, many users have reported that Trove has been removed from GeForce Now. This method may have failed, but NVIDIA has not officially confirmed whether this entrance has been closed. GeForce Now is clearly positioned as a cloud gaming service, and NVIDIA does not provide a general-purpose Windows cloud PC.