Go to www.microsoft.com/downloads and search for “Remote Desktop Mac.” (Figure 1 shows the download page.)
After you have the Remote Desktop Connection Client installed on your Mac, follow these steps:
1. | Ensure that the Windows PC to which you’ll be connecting is configured to accept Remote Desktop connections.
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2. | In Finder, open the Applications folder, and then launch the Remote Desktop Connection icon.
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3. | In the Computer text box, type the name or IP address of the host computer, as shown in Figure 2.
Note
In my experience, Mac-based Remote Desktop connections work best when you use the IP address of the Windows host PC.
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4. | If
you don’t want to customize Remote Desktop, skip to step 7. Otherwise,
select Remote Desktop Connection, Preferences to open the Remote Desktop
Connection preferences dialog box.
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5. | The Login tab offers the following options:
- User Name— This is the username you want to use to log in to the host computer.
- Password— This is the password to use to log in to the host computer.
- Domain— Leave this text box blank.
- Add User Information to Your Keychain— Activate this check box to have Mac OS X remember your login data.
- Reconnect Automatically If Disconnected—
Leave this check box activated to have Remote Desktop Connection
automatically reestablish a connect to the host if you get disconnected.
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6. | Fill
in the options in the other tabs, as required. Note that most of these
tabs provide a similar set of options that the Windows version of Remote
Desktop Connection provides. For example, the Display tab, shown in Figure 3, combines many of the options that you see in the Display and Experience tabs in the Windows version.
Figure 3.
The Mac version of Remote Desktop Connection, the preferences are
similar to the options in the Windows version of the program.
Tip
The default Colors
setting that Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2 uses is
Thousands, which can make most Windows screens look awful. In the
Display tab, use the Colors pop-up menu to select Millions.
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7. | Click
Connect. If you didn’t specify the login data for the Windows PC in the
Remote Desktop Connection preferences, the programs prompts you to
enter them now.
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8. | Type
the username and password for an account on the Windows PC, activate
the Add User Information to Your Keychain check box to save the login
data, and then click OK.
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Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2 connects to the Windows PC. Figure 4 shows Mac OS X with a connection to a Windows 7 computer.
When you’re done,
select RDC, Quit RDC, and then click Disconnect when the program warns
you that you’re about to disconnect from the Windows PC.
