Argus — Browse your photos without importing them

Your photos stay on your PC. You browse them from the couch.

Argus opens the photo folders on your computer or NAS on any tablet or phone — to sift through them, tag them and pick favourites. Nothing is uploaded to a cloud library, nothing is copied, and there is no account to create.

Up and running in three steps

Start the tray app

Run Argus Node on the computer that holds your photos. It indexes the folder in the background and waits in the notification area.

Show the pairing code

Right-click the Argus icon and choose Pair a device…. A QR code appears on screen.

Scan and browse

Point your tablet's or phone's camera at the code. The gallery opens right in the browser — no app to install, no password to type.

Built around the photos you already have

Originals stay put

No import, no copies, no second library to maintain. Argus reads your folders where they are.

The QR code is the login

No sign-up and no password. A paired device sees only that one computer, and access ends when the tray app closes.

Tags that travel with the files

Tags, descriptions and favourites are written as XMP sidecars next to the originals — readable by other photo tools.

Works through any network

The tray app connects outwards. No port forwarding, no VPN, no router settings — at home, at the holiday flat, in a hotel.

Pick favourites, export them

Star the keepers on the tablet, then copy the originals into a folder of your choice with one click.

Indexed once, quick afterwards

Each computer keeps its own small index with thumbnails. Later scans only look at what changed.

Download Argus Node

The tray app is the part that runs next to your photos. Everything else happens in the browser.

First start

Unzip the download into a folder of your choice, for example Documents\Argus.

Open appsettings.json in that folder and set RootPath to the folder holding your photos. Broker access is entered as described in the file.

Start ArgusNode.exe. The app is not code-signed yet, so Windows may warn on the first start — choose More info, then Run anyway.

The Argus icon appears next to the clock and the first scan starts on its own. Tick Start with Windows in its menu to keep it running.