Connecting to your Windows Machine Remotely From Your Macintosh

ByMike Moffit

I’m originally a Windows guy, fortunately Small Dog helped me see the light and now I use mostly Macintosh computers. There are several times when I need to use Windows so I keep a few Windows machines around. I’ve attempted to use a VNC server on my Windows machine and Apple Remote Desktop to access it but it’s been really slow and unresponsive every time I’ve tried to do it this way. I pretty much gave up on the idea until today.

I did a quick search on the Apple Discussion forums about how one would go about remotely controlling their Windows PC from their Macintosh computer. The discussion thread that helped me the most was:

Apple Discussion Board Thread

It linked to Microsoft’s website for their Macintosh Remote Desktop Control application. I was stunned, mostly because I couldn’t believe I didn’t know about this program. You can see this website here:

Microsoft Remote Desktop Client

The piece of software is free and works, looks and acts just like the Windows version (which I was pretty used to). The software only works on specific versions of Windows, Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition so no Windows XP Home. You will also need to configure Windows to allow remote desktop control (much like allowing Macintosh to accept remote control). Then you can use the Remote Desktop Control client program to access that Windows machine.

This is especially nice for me in that I can now move my PC away from desk, free up some space and I can remotely control it to use those few Windows applications I need. It’s even nicer because I don’t actually have to be on my home network to access the computer either. I can be in China!

If you’re looking to access your PC from your Mac while connected to another network (example. connecting to a work PC from your Mac at home) this is possible to do and fairly easy to accomplish. If you have a router you will need to forward port 3389 to the computer you want to connect to. If you don’t have a router then all you need is your IP address (http://www.whatismyip.com) and you can use that! While that is a very basic explanation of how to do this, you can use Google to search for more information about doing this.

This link might also prove to be useful to some:

Networking Remote Desktop with Windows

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