Methods and systems for connecting client devices to anonymous sessions via helpers are described herein. One or more anonymous sessions may be generated on one or more target machines. Configuration information for generating an anonymous session may be used to initiate generation of the anonymous session on a target machine. A helper process may be created and associated with the anonymous session. A request to start a virtual application or desktop may be received from a client device, and the client device may be connected to the anonymous session on the target machine. The helper associated with the anonymous session may retrieve credentials associated with a user of the client device and/or may use the credentials associated with the user to start the virtual application or desktop on the target machine as the user.