If you have to use Mac and Windows PCs regularly, you don’t need to physically switch computers to be able to use both of them. You can use Windows Remote Desktop for macOS, to allow you to use both machines at the same time.
Windows Remote Desktop for Mac uses Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol, built into Windows 10, to display your Windows desktop on your macOS screen. You can run Windows apps, change settings, and share files and folders between your Mac and Windows devices.
If you have multiple always-on Windows 10 PCs set up in your home in different rooms, it can be a chore to shut down or reboot each one. Shut Down or Restart a. Apr 02, 2016 Note: If you don’t know the IP address of the windows 10 host then go to windows and open Cmd and type IPconfig then you’ll see the IP address in front of IPV4 Address. Microsoft Remote Desktop. When the settings finished close the window then select the connection and click Start. Start Connection. After starting, you’ll be asked for verifying certificate so just click on Continue. Solution: Before you start the Remote Desktop session, make the Mac disks available to the Windows-based computer. 1.On the RDC menu, click Preferences. 2.Click Drives, and then on the pop-up menu, select the option that you want. Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Microsoft Remote Desktop. Oct 10, 2012 With new versions of Mac OS X, multiple people can connect to and observe the same Macs screen too, though if you’re trying to do a live screen cast you’d be better off using Google Hangouts.Also exclusive to modern OS X releases (10.8 and later) is the ability to share files between Screen Shared Macs just by dragging and dropping, though if you don’t have that option there are other.
Installing Windows Remote Desktop for Mac
There are two versions of Windows Remote Desktop for Mac, and which one you should use depends on your current version of macOS. In most cases, you should install Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac 10.
If it doesn’t work, try the older Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac 8 app instead, although version 8 is scheduled to be removed from the Mac App Store sometime in the near future.
To install it, open the App Store. You can find this in your Launchpad, located in the Dock at the bottom of your screen, or by searching for it the Spotlight Search tool in the top-right of your screen.
In the App Store, click on the search bar in the left-hand menu, and type in Microsoft Remote Desktop. Once you’ve located it in the search results, click the Get button to install it.
The Get button will change to a green Install button. Click that too, then approve the installation by providing your Apple ID password. Click the second Get button to continue.
Once installed, click the Open button, or locate the app in the Launchpad.
You may need to approve some additional permissions once you’ve opened the Microsoft Remote Desktop app. Approve and accept these, and then you can begin using it.
Adding a Remote Desktop Connection
Once you’ve opened the Remote Desktop for Mac, you’ll be able to add a new remote desktop connection.
Click the Add Desktop button in the center of the window. Alternatively, click the plus button in the top menu, then click Add PC or Add Workspace.
Fill out the Add PC form with the relevant information for your remote Windows PC. To use the standard RDP settings, start by adding your Windows PC’s IP address in the PC Name text box. Provide a memorable name in the Friendly Name box. Click Add once the settings are confirmed.
Your connection will appear, saved and ready to connect in the main Remote Desktop for Mac window. Double-click on the entry to begin your connection. You’ll be asked to provide the username and password for your Windows PC at this point. Provide them, then click Continue to connect.
If it’s your first connection, you may need to accept a security warning. Make sure you only agree to this if you’re connecting to a server you trust. If you do, click Continue to disregard the message and make the connection.
After a few seconds, the remote desktop connection to your Windows PC will complete and launch, full screen, ready for you to use.
Configuring a Remote Desktop Connection
Further configuration options are available, including the ability to change the quality of the connection and to redirect local devices connected to your Mac to your remote Windows PC.
To edit a saved connection, hover over your server and click the pencil button. Alternatively, right-click on the saved connection and click Edit.
If you a Mac with a Retina display, you’ll want to optimize the resolution of your remote connection. In the Display tab, click to enable the Optimize for Retina displays checkbox. You can also customize the color quality of your connection from the Color quality drop-down menu. You can set the overall resolution of your connection from your Resolution drop-down menu. Click Save to complete.
In the Devices & Audio tab, you can select what local devices you want to be able to access on your remote Windows PC. Click to check any of the checkboxes listed. You can also select whether to play sounds locally or remotely from the Play sound drop-down menu. As before, click Save to complete.
Sharing Files & Folders Between Mac & Windows
It’s also possible to share files and folders between your local Mac computer and your remote Windows PC.
To do that, right-click your saved server and click Edit, then click the Folders tab. Click the Redirect Folders checkbox, then click the plus button at the bottom of the window.
Select the folders you want to share in the Finder window, then click Open to add them to your list. If you want to make them read-only, click the checkbox next to each folder entry under the Read-only column. Click Save once you’ve finished adding the folders you want to share.
Your shared Mac folders will then appear as network drives, listed as Redirected drives and folders, in the This PC section of Windows File Explorer once you make the connection.
Sharing a Remote Desktop Across Mac Computers
If you have multiple Mac computers and you want to share the same configuration file for your Windows remote desktop, you can save the file and place it in your iCloud storage for you to access.
This requires each Mac computer to use the same Apple ID for iCloud storage.
To export your remote desktop configuration, right-click your saved connection in the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, then click Export.
Exporting RDP configuration files removes any saved passwords, which the Microsoft Remote Desktop app will warn you. Accept this warning by clicking Browse.
In the Finder window, click iCloud Drive in the left-hand menu. Save your connection file by clicking Export.
On another Mac computer, open Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac, click the Settings icon in the top menu bar, then click Import from RDP file.
In the Finder window that appears, click iCloud Drive in the left-hand menu. Find and select your saved RDP file, then click Import.
Once you’ve imported your saved RDP file, you’ll then be able to connect to your remote Windows server as before.
Apple's Time Machine is the go-to backup method for many Mac users. Apple's termination of the AirPort series puts some users in a lurch over how they will be continuing to back up their Macs using Time Machine when Time Capsule is no more. Luckily there a few Apple approved Time Machine backup optionssans Time Capsule.
However, not everyone will be able or willing to use a spare Mac as a backup location or attach yet another external drive or even buy an expensive Time Machine capable NAS. There do exist other hacked solutions that will allow you to use any networked location — including a Windows share. Although this method cobbles together various utilities to make it function (and as such could be subject to points of failure), you can easily set up Time Machine to use a non-approved location for backups. Here's how!
The problem
The issue that makes Time Machine more difficult in terms of options for backup locations is that it requires use of Apple's proprietary HFS+ filesystem. Although I'm certain the HFS+ features that Time Machine uses for file versioning and linking could be 'mimicked' for use on other more open filesystems, the reality is that Apple chose HFS+ and supports that filesystem exclusively in Time Machine (in fact as of this writing Apple's new APFS isn't even supported for Time Machine backups as of yet).
Create a Windows share location
I won't go into detail on how to create a shared folder on a Windows PC but before you begin, you'll need to have a share created and accessible to your Mac that you want to run Time Machine on. For example, if you have a Windows PC named 'Server' and a network shared folder on the Windows PC named 'share', you'd be able to test for connectivity by doing the following:
Start Finder.
Click GO > Connect to Server.
Enter smb://Server/Share where 'server' is the name of the Windows PC and 'share' is the name of the shared folder.
Click Connect.
If you've properly set everything up, you'll be prompted to enter a registered user and password. Make certain to save those credentials to your keychain for the OS to automatically use those credentials for connecting to the share for future access. You should also see that share in Finder in your 'Shared' section and see the 'Eject' icon next to it since it is now mounted.
Create a sparsebundle image
We now need to create an 'image' file that will, in essence, pretend to be an HFS+ filesystem for your Mac to back up to.
Start Disk Utility.
Go to File > New Image > Blank Image.
Rename the Save As to TimeMachine.
Press the Down Arrow next to Save As.
Select your mounted Share.
Rename the Name of your sparsebundle.
Select the Size of the backup location. Be generous. If you want to be able to at the very least backup the entire contents of a full hard drive, elect a size at least equal to your Macintosh HD drive size. As a word of warning, the size you choose will be the size of the disk space that will be immediately created on the remote share.
Make certain that the Format is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Click Save. This will take a while especially if you set a large file size.
Click Done.
Make the remote share automatically mount
In order for this hack to survive reboots, we need to ensure that the remote share is automatically mounted when you restart your Mac. Here is a simple way to get this done. Some drawbacks of this method are that it only works once you've logged in and it won't work for other users of your Mac.
Start System Preferences.
Select Users & Groups.
Select your Username.
Click Login Items.
Click the +.
Navigate to and select your mounted share and TimeMachine.dmg file we created earlier.
Click Add.
Share Apps Windows 10 To Mac Remote Access
You may need to unmount the share before this can take effect but as of this moment, that share will automatically mount every time you reboot and log in.
Download Mac Apps On Windows
Make Time Machine use the remote share and file
Finally, we're ready to make Time Machine see and use the Windows 10 share housing our sparsebundle file.
Share Apps Windows 10 To Mac Remote Download
Start Terminal.
Enter the command sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/TimeMachine/ where 'TimeMachine' is the name you gave to your sparsebundle you created with Disk Utility.
Enter your Password.
Check Time Machine
Now we just need to check that Time Machine sees the disk and is ready to use it for backups.
Start System Preferences.
Select Time Machine.
You should now see that Time Machine has a backup location and Select Disk shows the proper name of the sparsebundle.
Final Comments
Yes, this is far and away from the simple 'just works' ideology that Apple is famous for. But if you have no other choice, it works for our Time Machine purposes. Do you have any comments or questions? Let us know in the comment section!
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