Remote Desktop Windows Macos

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Applies To: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016

You can use the Remote Desktop client for Mac to work with Windows apps, resources, and desktops from your Mac computer. Use the following information to get started - and check out the FAQ if you have questions.

Jun 14, 2016 The “Windows” key. Make sure you use the RDP Client to remote into the Windows Machine in order for the following keyboard shortcuts to work. Very Important: Some of the hotkeys below conflict with your macOS’s default global hotkeys. Make sure your global keyboard hotkeys are unassigned (from the System Preferences / Keyboard / Shortcuts.
Microsoft Remote Desktop for MacOSfor MacOShttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S.

Feb 08, 2021 On my MacBook (although this would work on any Apple machine running macOS, such as a Mac Mini), the Microsoft Remote Desktop application is a fantastic program for remoting to another computer. While primarily designed for accessing a Windows machine, it will work with most computers that support the RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) such as many.

Note

Curious about the new releases for the macOS client? Check out What's new for Remote Desktop on Mac?
The Mac client runs on computers running macOS 10.10 and newer.
The information in this article applies primarily to the full version of the Mac client - the version available in the Mac AppStore. Test-drive new features by downloading our preview app here: beta client release notes.

Get the Remote Desktop client

Follow these steps to get started with Remote Desktop on your Mac:

Download the Microsoft Remote Desktop client from the Mac App Store.
Set up your PC to accept remote connections. (If you skip this step, you can't connect to your PC.)
Add a Remote Desktop connection or a remote resource. You use a connection to connect directly to a Windows PC and a remote resource to use a RemoteApp program, session-based desktop, or a virtual desktop published on-premises using RemoteApp and Desktop Connections. This feature is typically available in corporate environments.

What about the Mac beta client?

We're testing new features on our preview channel on AppCenter. Want to check it out? Go to Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac and select Download. You don't need to create an account or sign into AppCenter to download the beta client.

If you already have the client, you can check for updates to ensure you have the latest version. In the beta client, select Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta at the top, and then select Check for updates.

Add a workspace

Subscribe to the feed your admin gave you to get the list of managed resources available to you on your macOS device.

To subscribe to a feed:

Select Add feed on the main page to connect to the service and retrieve your resources.
Enter the feed URL. This can be a URL or email address:
- This URL is usually a Windows Virtual Desktop URL. Which one you use depends on which version of Windows Virtual Desktop you're using.
  - For Windows Virtual Desktop (classic), use https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/api/feeddiscovery/webfeeddiscovery.aspx.
  - For Windows Virtual Desktop, use https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/api/arm/feeddiscovery.
- To use email, enter your email address. This tells the client to search for a URL associated with your email address if your admin configured the server that way.
Select Subscribe.
Sign in with your user account when prompted.

After you've signed in, you should see a list of available resources.

Once you've subscribed to a feed, the feed's content will update automatically on a regular basis. Resources may be added, changed, or removed based on changes made by your administrator.

Export and import connections

You can export a remote desktop connection definition and use it on a different device. Remote desktops are saved in separate RDP files.

To export an RDP file:

In the Connection Center, right-click the remote desktop.
Select Export.
Browse to the location where you want to save the remote desktop RDP file.
Select OK.

To import an RDP file:

In the menu bar, select File > Import.
Browse to the RDP file.
Select Open.

Add a remote resource

Remote resources are RemoteApp programs, session-based desktops, and virtual desktops published using RemoteApp and Desktop Connections.

Remote Desktop Windows Mac Os X

The URL displays the link to the RD Web Access server that gives you access to RemoteApp and Desktop Connections.
The configured RemoteApp and Desktop Connections are listed.

To add a remote resource:

In the Connection Center select +, and then select Add Remote Resources.
Enter information for the remote resource:
- Feed URL - The URL of the RD Web Access server. You can also enter your corporate email account in this field – this tells the client to search for the RD Web Access Server associated with your email address.
- User name - The user name to use for the RD Web Access server you are connecting to.
- Password - The password to use for the RD Web Access server you are connecting to.
Select Save.

The remote resources will be displayed in the Connection Center.

Connect to an RD Gateway to access internal assets

A Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) lets you connect to a remote computer on a corporate network from anywhere on the Internet. You can create and manage your gateways in the preferences of the app or while setting up a new desktop connection.

To set up a new gateway in preferences:

In the Connection Center, select Preferences > Gateways.
Select the + button at the bottom of the table Enter the following information:
- Server name – The name of the computer you want to use as a gateway. This can be a Windows computer name, an Internet domain name, or an IP address. You can also add port information to the server name (for example: RDGateway:443 or 10.0.0.1:443).
- User name - The user name and password to be used for the Remote Desktop gateway you are connecting to. You can also select Use connection credentials to use the same user name and password as those used for the remote desktop connection.

Manage your user accounts

When you connect to a desktop or remote resources, you can save the user accounts to select from again. You can manage your user accounts by using the Remote Desktop client.

To create a new user account:

In the Connection Center, select Settings > Accounts.
Select Add User Account.
Enter the following information:
- User Name - The name of the user to save for use with a remote connection. You can enter the user name in any of the following formats: user_name, domainuser_name, or user_name@domain.com.
- Password - The password for the user you specified. Every user account that you want to save to use for remote connections needs to have a password associated with it.
- Friendly Name - If you are using the same user account with different passwords, set a friendly name to distinguish those user accounts.
Select Save, then select Settings.

Customize your display resolution

You can specify the display resolution for the remote desktop session.

In the Connection Center, select Preferences.
Select Resolution.
Select +.
Enter a resolution height and width, and then select OK.

To delete the resolution, select it, and then select -.

Displays have separate spaces

If you're running Mac OS X 10.9 and have disabled Displays have separate spaces in Mavericks (System Preferences > Mission Control), you need to configure this setting in the Remote Desktop client using the same option.

Drive redirection for remote resources

Drive redirection is supported for remote resources, so that you can save files created with a remote application locally to your Mac. The redirected folder is always your home directory displayed as a network drive in the remote session.

Note

In order to use this feature, the administrator needs to set the appropriate settings on the server.

Use a keyboard in a remote session

Mac keyboard layouts differ from the Windows keyboard layouts.

The Command key on the Mac keyboard equals the Windows key.
To perform actions that use the Command button on the Mac, you will need to use the control button in Windows (for example Copy = Ctrl+C).
The function keys can be activated in the session by pressing additionally the FN key (for example, FN+F1).
The Alt key to the right of the space bar on the Mac keyboard equals the Alt Gr/right Alt key in Windows.

By default, the remote session will use the same keyboard locale as the OS you're running the client on. (If your Mac is running an en-us OS, that will be used for the remote sessions as well.) If the OS keyboard locale is not used, check the keyboard setting on the remote PC and change it manually. See the Remote Desktop Client FAQ for more information about keyboards and locales.

Support for Remote Desktop gateway pluggable authentication and authorization

Windows Server 2012 R2 introduced support for a new authentication method, Remote Desktop Gateway pluggable authentication and authorization, which provides more flexibility for custom authentication routines. You can now try this authentication model with the Mac client.

Important

Custom authentication and authorization models before Windows 8.1 aren't supported, although the article above discusses them.

To learn more about this feature, check out https://aka.ms/paa-sample.

Tip

Questions and comments are always welcome. However, please do NOT post a request for troubleshooting help by using the comment feature at the end of this article. Instead, go to the Remote Desktop client forum and start a new thread. Have a feature suggestion? Tell us in the client user voice forum.

There are many ways to remotely control a Windows computer software such as using third party software or the built-in Remote Desktop feature. However, the choices of remotely controlling another computer that is running a different operating system can be quite limited. Although Windows dominates the computer market, but you can still find a lot of people using Macs that runs on OS X.

Apple has their own remote access software called Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) which is a shareware that cost $79.99. It comes with some powerful features such as software distribution and automation to perform repetitive tasks on remote computers, but unfortunately it is meant for Mac to Mac and not cross platform.

In this article, we will be sharing a few methods on how you can remotely access Apple Mac computers from another computer running Windows for free.

1. TeamViewer

TeamViewer is one of the most popular remote access software that is commonly used to provide remote support because it is easy to use and comes with really powerful features such as file transfer, switch sides, conference call, VoIP, screen recording and etc. Other than that, TeamViewer also works on multiple operating systems where it allows you to control a Mac OS X system from a Windows computer.

You will need to download and install the “HOST” version of TeamViewer on the Mac computer that you want to remotely control. As for the Windows computer that will be controlling the Mac computer, simply download the TeamViewer full version, install and run it. Enter the ID followed by the password and you’re able to connect to the OS X machine. The ID will not change and always stay the same on the machine.

The TeamViewer Host options can be accessed by clicking on the TeamViewer icon at the menu bar and select Preferences. You can change your password, configure the voice, microphone and phone conferencing, access control and etc.

Download TeamViewer Host for Mac

2. LogMeIn Free

LogMeIn Free allows you to conveniently remotely control a Mac computer running OS X from Windows through its web interface or the Firefox plugin. First you will need to create a free account, then login from the Mac computer and click the Add Computer button to download the LogMeIn Installer. After installation, you are able to access that computer from any other computer by logging in to LogMeIn. Do take note that the file transfer feature is disabled in the free version.

Download LogMeIn Free

3. RealVNC

Although there are many versions of VNC which are mostly free, RealVNC targets the enterprise users by offering shareware version and cross platform support to Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX and AIX. Similarly to LogMeIn, the free version of RealVNC provides a very basic remote access feature without file transfer, chat, session encryption, optimized performance, printing and deployment tool. You can use other VNC viewer such as TightVNC and UltraVNC to access the RealVNC server.

Download RealVNC

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Vladimir3 months ago

RealVNC is useless because it does not support data compression compatible with Mac VNC server. So it uses extremely slow and traffic-consuming uncompressed RGB.

Can you suggest a better VNC client or alternative strategy?

Swikriti3 years ago

Can I use softwares like Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver etc (which are in MAC) from Windows system if the windows system doesn’t have the same softwares?

If the OSX commuter has remote management enabled, what client does the Windows computer need to run to connect to it?

Remote Desktop Macos From Windows

menlo6 years ago

Logmein Free isn’t completely free anymore. You can buy an account, and for IT people, you can buy Logmein Central, and then tie a couple of Logmein Pro pay-for machines to the account (easy). Then you are given logmein free subscriptions you can then tie into the account. If the remote access is going to give you an hourly rate or save you time (and time is money) then it is WORTH buying the annual subscription.
The thing that has always been an issue for me is Logmein wants to boast about their ability to stream the remote desktop as HD, and frankly that is just bells and whistles to me. That requires WAY more bandwidth, and is pointless in most cases. The GREAT thing about logmein, even over their join.me product, is you can cut back the color quality or even make it black and white. This SIGNIFICANTLY speeds up the remote session to make sure things work right. Join.me is a $100/yr subscription, to compete with their enterprise version rescue, but again the quality of the remote session is simply limiting and time wasting for the average IT guy who needs to help the user.
More to the point of Logmein Pro, you can actually perform secure file transfers, and monitor the system in a dashboard. The Dashboard for pro subscriptions ALSO gives you things like the top fifteen running processes, all scheduled tasks, the most current 15 lines of the event viewer log, etc. You can perform various levels of remote boot, and even utilize a scripting type offering called one to many.
It is incredibly powerful, and COMPLETELY worth the cost of the annual subscriptions.
(I do NOT work for Logmein, just an IT consultant.)

Thank you very much. Used realvnc viewer on win 7 64bit, to connect to a mac laptop on OS X Mavericks.

JC7 years ago

I was using the built in vnc server for osx, but with the last 10.8.5 update my connection got a lot of lag. I updated my vnc viewers to the latest but that didn’t help. I finally downloaded the vine vnc server ( turned off the osx vnc server ) and bingo problem solved. Thanks for the article, it was a great help.

Remote Desktop Windows Macos Download

Remote Desktop Windows Mac

thanks a lot

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