TL;DR: Tags make remote computer management more efficient and help you organize remote computers by location, operating system, department, client, or device role so you can find the right machine faster. In ISL Online, you can add tags to unattended computers, search and filter by tag, view tags on shared computers, and clean up unused tags from the Manage tags page.
What are computer tags?
Computer tags are labels that help organize remote computers by attributes such as location, operating system, department, client, or device role. Unlike folders, a computer can have multiple tags at the same time, making it easier to filter and manage large device inventories.
Why should you use tags to manage remote computers?
Once you’re managing dozens or hundreds of remote computers across multiple locations, clients, departments, or operating systems, finding the right device quickly becomes a challenge. This is where tags become an essential part of remote computer management.
Unlike folders, tags let you slice your computer inventory across multiple dimensions at once. One machine can be “windows”, “pharmacy”, “branch-london”, and “unattended” at the same time. You filter by any combination. You find what you need in seconds.
That said, tags only stay useful if you manage them. Left unchecked, they accumulate. Old tags from decommissioned machines hang around. Naming conventions drift. Someone tags a computer “test” and then leaves the company. Six months later, nobody knows what “test” means or whether it’s still relevant.
What good tag management actually looks like
A clean tagging system needs four things:
Consistent naming conventions. Decide on a format before you start. location-city, os-windows, dept-finance are predictable and searchable. “Windows machines London”, “win_lnd”, and “london windows” are three tags that mean the same thing and can cause confusion within a month.
Tags that reflect how you actually filter. Think about what questions you ask most often: “Which machines are in the London office?” “Which computers are running Windows?” “Which ones belong to client X?” Those questions become your tag categories.
Regular cleanup. Tags assigned to machines you’ve since removed don’t disappear on their own. Without a way to clean them up, your filter list grows into noise.
Manage Remote Computers More Efficiently
ISL Online remote access software helps you organize unattended computers with tags, making it easy to search, filter, and connect to the right device.
Start Free TrialHow do you tag remote computers in ISL Online?
How to add tags to a remote computer
You can add tags in ISL Light, under Computers tab. Open the Actions menu for any computer and select Edit. Type your tags in the tag field and press Enter to apply each one. You can add multiple tags at once by separating them with a comma or semicolon.
Tags can also be added from the Administration section on the web portal, where you can manage computers at scale.
Click on the desired computer and add tags in the Quick View.
How to search and filter remote computers by tag
You can search and filter remote computers by tag in ISL Online from the tag icon, Tags column, hover tooltip, Search option, or All tags dropdown.
Tag icon: Each computer row shows a tag icon. Click it to see all tags assigned to that machine. Clicking any tag in that preview immediately filters the computer list to show all machines with that tag.
Tags column: The computer list table supports a Tags column. It’s not shown by default, but you can enable it by right-clicking the table header and selecting it. Once visible, tags are displayed directly in the list alongside status, alias, and other details.
Right-click the table header and add column Tags to your table.
Click the tag icon (
) of the computer to quickly preview your tags. Hover tooltip: Hovering over any computer row shows a tooltip with additional details, including the computer’s tags, without needing to open any menus.
Search: Click the Search icon to open the search field and start typing the tag name. Search matches from the beginning of the tag name, so typing “london” will not find “windows-london”, but typing “windows” will. To search by any part of the tag name, use the All tags dropdown instead. Type any part of the name in the search field and it finds matching tags.
) the search window opens and you can start typing the desired tag. Search matches from the beginning of the tag name and results will show all computers assigned with a tag that starts with that word.All tags dropdown: The tag filter dropdown lists all tags available to you, including tags on computers shared with you by other users.
How to delete unused tags in ISL Online
When you delete a computer from your computer list, its tags are not deleted. They remain in your tag list and in the filter dropdown. A machine gets decommissioned, removed from the list, and its tags stay behind. Multiply that across a few months or a year of changes and the dropdown starts filling with tags that refer to nothing.
A dedicated Computer Tags page lists every tag you’ve created, with a status indicator showing whether each one is currently assigned to any computer. When a tag is assigned to at least one computer it shows status “In use”, otherwise it shows “Not in use”. Tags can be deleted individually or in bulk.
The most efficient workflow: filter by Not in use, select all, delete in one action. This takes a few seconds and clears out everything that’s been accumulating since you first set up your account.
Delete not used tags individually or in bulk on the Computer Tags page that you will find here.
One thing worth knowing about permissions: you can delete your own tags, and tags in computer groups that have been shared with you with computer manager or group admin role. Tags on computers shared with you with connect-only permission are visible in the dropdown but not yours to manage.
How shared computer tags work in ISL Online
When someone shares a computer with you, the tags assigned to that machine appear in the All tags dropdown alongside your own. If the same tag exists on both a computer you own and a shared one, it shows up once, marked as yours, with no duplicates.
This matters most for teams and MSPs where computers frequently move between accounts or get shared across technicians. Your filter results reflect the full picture of what you have access to, not just what you own.
A practical tagging structure for remote computers
If you’re starting fresh or cleaning up an existing mess, here’s a structure that works well in practice. You don’t need all of these categories. Start with the ones that match the questions you ask most often.
By location: loc-london, loc-new-york, loc-remote
Useful when you support multiple offices or need to filter by geography for compliance or maintenance windows.
By operating system: os-windows, os-mac, os-linux
Speeds up OS-specific troubleshooting and update coordination.
By department or client: dept-finance, client-acme, client-healthcare
Essential for MSPs managing multiple clients from one account, or internal IT teams supporting multiple business units.
By machine role: role-server, role-workstation, role-kiosk, role-unattended
Helps you immediately understand what you’re connecting to before you open a session.
By environment: env-production, env-staging, env-test
Keeps you from accidentally running something on a production machine when you meant to target a test box. Worth it.
How to keep remote computer tags clean
Tags are easy to create and easy to forget about. A few habits that prevent the mess from coming back:
Define your tag format once, document it, share it. Even a short internal wiki page listing your tag categories and naming rules saves a lot of “what does this tag mean” conversations later.
Review unused tags quarterly. The Computer tags page makes this fast. Filter by Not in use, delete what’s stale, done.
Don’t create single-use tags. A tag that only applies to one machine usually isn’t worth creating. Use the computer name or notes field instead.
Be conservative with shared environments. If you’re sharing computers with other users, coordinate on tag naming so the “All tags” dropdown stays readable for everyone.
Tags in remote access software feel optional until you have too many machines to navigate without them. A consistent strategy helps you organize remote computers with tags, manage unattended computers faster, and keep growing environments from turning into a filter-dropdown junk drawer. Combined with regular cleanup and clear naming conventions, tags help remote computer management scale without adding complexity.