I don’t know how to connect to my desktop without a password.
Connections to Windows account without password are not possible (https://www.nomachine.com/AR05L00802&an=).
Eventually I would like to use a password, but a password that is not related in any way to a login password for Windows. How do I do that?
You can use NoMachine users database.
1. Edit as administrator the server configuration file (%PROGRAMFILES%/NoMachine/etc/server.cfg) and enable (uncomment and change value to 1) two keys:
Change:
#EnableUsetDB 0
…
EnablePasswordDB 0
to:
EnableUsetDB 1
…
EnablePasswordDB 1
And restart nxserver:
%PROGRAMFILES%/NoMachine/bin/nxserver.exe –restart
2. Add your user to NX database and set password for NoMachine log-in:
%PROGRAMFILES%/NoMachine/bin/nxserver.exe –useradd <username>
Now you can connect via NoMachine using your login and new password.
Also, if I wanted to use an authentication key, how would I set that up? Is that an option for the free personal version?
Yes. Here you have instruction how to do it (https://www.nomachine.com/AR02L00785).