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Asked: 2009-07-30 13:45:35 +0800 CST

Macs, can I remote desktop into it for software development?

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I am thinking of adding a mac, (latop or mac-mini), to my arsenal of development machines for iPhone development.

Is it possible to use the equivalent of remote desktop so I can stay on my regular(pc based) keyboard and monitor, but open a window into the mac when I want to use it?

I do this now with multiple PC's running various flavors of windows, but being a mac novice was not sure if this was even possible.

EDIT: Maybe I wasn't clear: I want to remotely control my Mac from a Vista PC, not from another Mac.

remote-desktop mac-osx

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    http://www.wikihow.com/Setup-VNC-on-Mac-OS-X

    This is relatively useful tutorial on this issue and the options/solutions available. You can use other clients besides apple remote desktop. Though I have to say apple's remote desktop is a nice piece of software. However, you said you are just adding one os x box to your network.

    EDIT:

    You can use this tutorial to get the server side of things working on the mac (which is really just turning on remote desktop services), then use whatever vnc client you use for vista to connect to it.

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  2. ARD does use VNC; you can also use a separate VNC server, such as OSXvnc, which performed better for me over WAN connections when I've compared the two (but that was some time ago, so Apple has likely improved their server in the meantime.)

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  3. As others have mentioned, Apple Remote Desktop uses VNC and the built-in ARD Client allows you to enable straight VNC access. To do this under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard:

    1. launch System Preferences (either from the Apple menu or /Applications)
    2. Click on "Sharing" icon
    3. Check the "Remote Management" checkbox to turn on ARDAgent & AppleVNCClient
    4. Click the "Computer Settings..." button
    5. Check the "VNC viewers may control screen with password:" checkbox and fill in a password
    6. Click the "OK" button
    7. That should be it, you can quit System Preferences

    You can then use any VNC Client on Windows to control it.

    I'd suggest also opening up SSH access to the box while you're in the Sharing prefs in System Preferences as you can simply kill the aforementioned AppleVNCServer process if it crashes and you have trouble connecting. I used to have to do this regularly on some Mac boxes, but haven't had to in a few years (although, I also don't connect directly with a VNC client anymore either).

    BTW - I believe that the VNC password is for screen zero.

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  4. Yes!

    You can use Apple remote desktop

    (just googled and hope this is still relevant, it shouldn't be to different... http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2006/04/14/easier-way-to-remote-control-mac-via-apple-remote-desktop/ )

    Apart from that, I am sure I have seen various VNC versions that run on apple as a server so people can connect in.

    edit - looks like (at least from my link) that the Apple Remote Desktop uses vnc

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  5. I would look into Jolly's VNC client as it is by FAR the fastest VNC client I have used with Apple's built-in VNC server. There may be client's with more features, but interacting with the remote desktop using Jolly's client is almost like sitting at the machine.

    UPDATE: I was an idiot and didn't initially see that you wanted to control it from Windows. I apologize for the noise.

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