Question: Q: Remote desktop for Mac OSX 10.7.5. How do I use remote desktop connection? I need to connect to a Windows based server to edit MS Office documents. I tried downloading the Microsoft Remote desktop connection client, but it did not work. Posted on Mar 6, 2013 5:37 AM. Apple Remote Desktop is the best way to manage the Mac computers on your network. Distribute software, provide real-time online help to end users, create detailed software and hardware reports, and automate routine management tasks—all without leaving your desk. AccessToGo Remote Desktop/RDP Client Free AccessToGo is the FASTEST mobile RDP client - includes unique patent protected technology for optimal resizing of Windows objects.
Microsoft Remote Deskop is an effective free tool for managing remote-desktop connections from a Mac. Perfect for those who travel frequently, or those who have a Mac/PC environment at work that they need to interface with, this free app provides most of the basic tools necessary.
Pros
Fast and intuitive: Microsoft Remote Desktop's basic tools allow you to access your remote Windows desktop and open common programs, sort through files, and manipulate your machine from a Mac over an Internet connection. This is an invaluable tool.
Clean user interface: The interface is decidedly Mac-friendly, offering a range of tools that can quick-start popular Windows programs or folders that you use frequently on your PC. Whether you're booting up Remote Desktop quickly to access your machine or you're using it for long work sessions, the layout of the tools is effective.
Cons
Limited display options: The display options can be limited at times, with dock and menu hide options not available in certain configurations. Multiscreen support sometimes causes issues when you switch back to single-screen use, which can be frustrating when you're managing multiple apps or switching between interfaces.
Bottom Line
Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac is a useful free tool that allows you to access your Windows programs and files from a remote Mac. That alone is reason enough to download it, if you work on both systems and need to move files between them often. Remote Desktop is not as robust as other paid tools, but for infrequent transfers or very basic needs, it gets the job done.
What do you need to know about free software?
Screenshots
Description
With the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, you can connect to a remote PC and your work resources from almost anywhere. Experience the power of Windows with RemoteFX in a Remote Desktop client designed to help you get your work done wherever you are.
Getting Started
Configure your PC for remote access first. Download the RDP assistant to your PC and let it do the work for you: https://aka.ms/rdsetup
Learn more about remote desktop apps here: https://aka.ms/rdapps
Features
•Access to remote resources through the Remote Desktop Gateway
•Secure connection to your data and applications with breakthrough Network Layer Authentication (NLA) technology
•Simple management of all remote connections from the connection center
•High quality video and sound streaming with improved compression and bandwidth usage
•Easy connection to multiple monitors or projectors for presentations
•Print from Windows applications to any printer configured on your Mac
•Access local files on your Mac from your Windows applications
We're improving our app - learn more! https://aka.ms/rdmac-preview
What’s New
This update adds a dismissible banner to the app UI to message the fact that the client will be deprecated soon. You can start using the new version of Remote Desktop today by downloading Microsoft Remote Desktop 10 from the App Store.
Quite good, one fatal flaw
Overall this is an excellent app and I appreciate being able to connect easily to my Windows desktop machine acting as a headless server. However, there's one critical flaw: there appears to be no size limit on the clipboard. On my Windows machine I moved 120 GB worth of files via copy/paste. The next morning I couldn't figure out why my iMac was down to only 12 GB of storage - I dug into the depths of the cache files and found that the remote desktop software had pulled over the 120 GB of files. Come on developers, that is insane - there should be a default limit on the size of files that are copied over from the clipboard. Maybe 1 GB by default and there's an option for an override. But 120 GB? That's insane. Please fix that.
Consistent updates and reliable
I use this app constantly to remote into Windows servers from a Mac. It’s pretty great!
Only suggestion I have is it would be awesome if it were possible to remap keys and create custom ones myself to make editing text much more fluid. For example, command+c becomes control+c. Option+left/right arrow becomes control+left/right arrow to make cusor skipping over words. Option+shift+right/left arrow becomes control+shift+left/right arrow. There are many of these that would make it possible for me to retire Parallels/vmware on my Mac. Command+R should be F5. Also, I think having the command key operate as a Windows key just gets in the way. It would be nice to disable that. Thanks for the consideration. Great app!
Edit: It is fantastic to hear some of this is solved in a future release. Having a few shortcuts is a step in the right direction. Please consider opening this up to user-customization in the future release as well.
Developer Response,
Thank you for your sharing your feedback with us. We have started to work on a new experience which partially answers your feature requests. You can test drive it through the RD Insider program. You can reach it from the help menu from our app.
Turn off All Monitors by default and add quick connect
There needs to be an option to set a default settings for new session entires. One thing I NEVER use is multiple monitors for RDP. About half the time I forget to uncheck that box when I create a new entry and have to close the session, and go back in and change it. Can’t there just be a place in properties to set sane defaults per the user so that this problem goes away?
Also, there needs to be a quick connect option. I work with thousands of Windows VMs, and rarely have to connect to the same one more than a couple of times a year. I don’t want to have to create a new entry a dozen times a day for every session I access. I just want a quick connect box where I can pop in a name and go.
This is the one application, that I wish behaved more like the Windows version.
Information
OS X 10.9 or later, 64-bit processor
Microsoft Remote Desktop Client For Mac Os X
Mac Os Remote Desktop Client
Supports
Family Sharing
With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.