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Ok, there are tons and tons of questions about remote desktop for mac and they're all being closed as duplicates. I however am specifically looking for one that will let me use a different resolution than the host, the way you can with Remote Desktop for Windows.

For instance, when I connect to my 11" Macbook Air booted into Windows7 from my quad-screen desktop, also booted into Win7 using Microsoft's Remote Desktop Client, it blanks out the screen on the notebook, then virtualizes the video across all four of my desktop's monitors at their native resolutions (2560x1600, 2 x 1920x1200 and 1600x1200) and the notebook now acts as if it has four physical monitors connected to it. All of this from a notebook that only has a 1366 x 768 native resolution.

Even when running OS X on the client running RDC, while it doesn't support multi-monitors like its Win counterpart, it still lets me run at the native resolution of the client screen of 2560x1600. Again, it just blanks out the host screen while doing so.

However when using Mac's screen sharing, since that is just glorified VNC, it just mirrors what's already on the host's screen, meaning it will always be a single screen with the resolution of 1366x768. This of course makes sense since VNC is a mirroring solution, not a video-virtualizing one like RDC, but it means that on my quad-monitor setup, the remote window isn't even large enough to fill up a single monitor, let alone four (unless you have a client that can scale it up, but that's video scaling. It's still only 1366x768.)

So what I'm looking for is if there is a solution on the Mac that lets me do the same thing as RDC in a Win environment. Don't care if I have to pay. I'd gladly pay several hundred dollars for this. I just need that specific feature.

Note: People have suggested various VNC clients, but the VNC host still runs at 1366x768 so that will not work here. Ever. Also, people have suggested Synergy/Synergy+/Teleport and such which share the keyboard and mouse, not video. Completely different animal unrelated to what I'm looking for.

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3 Answers 3

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Logmein allows resolution changes. Once you connect, select options, screen options and pick the screen resolution you want.

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  • Doeesn't LogMeIn limit you to the locally, physically available resolutions (i.e. you can't actually set it larger than your host machine?)
    – Mark A. Donohoe
    Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 2:40
  • Good question. I'll check tonight.
    – opsin
    Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 4:17
  • my research says it does limit you to the device (host) resolutions, unlike RDP which limits you only to the client resolutions regardless of the controlled device, which can even be headless since it actually uses a virtual video card.
    – Mark A. Donohoe
    Commented Mar 29, 2012 at 18:26
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Team viewer allows you to change the screen resolution at the host level, it is free for home use, see link.

Teamviewer.com

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  • I believe TeamViewer requires one person to be at either end to initiate the connection. The host person has to give the remote person the ID and Pin... or do you know of another way to do this?
    – Mark A. Donohoe
    Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 2:40
  • If you have setup the remote computer for unattended access you do not need a person at that computer. It is very simple to use and very powerful. You can take control of the remote computer via the application or their website.
    – N4TKD
    Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 2:48
  • Yes. You have to be there to set it up. After that you can input the "master" code. Or just add it to your team viewer account and just click it.
    – opsin
    Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 4:20
  • Correct me if I'm wrong though, but just like LogMeIn, aren't the only choices for changing resolutions that of which is on the host itself (i.e. you can go lower, but not higher?) Again, the thing I like about the RDC solution is it virtualizes actual video cards which are used 'over the wire' to the client. That's how I can get native resolution of the client monitors, irrespective of the host system.
    – Mark A. Donohoe
    Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 5:04
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Have you tried IRAPP and/or IRAPP TS from coderebel.com?

Basically it's a terminal server solution for Mac that supports both its own native iRAPP client that runs on Windows as well as the native Microsoft Remote Desktop RDP client.

For a single user it's under $100, but if you actually want a terminal server, then they start charging per user.

Aqua Connect (www.aquaconnect.net) is another piece of software that does something similar.

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    I'll have to check it out. If it uses the RDP protocol, then hopefully it will let me change the resolution. That's what I'm after. None of the other things matter.
    – Mark A. Donohoe
    Commented Mar 29, 2012 at 18:25
  • Finally checed it out. This 'sort of' works. It does let you run at a different res, but maxes out at 1680x1050 which while it's better than the native 1366x768 is still a far cry from the 2560x1600. Why doesn't someone make a virtual, VNC-compatible video card for the non-console session?! That would be the best!
    – Mark A. Donohoe
    Commented Jan 14, 2013 at 20:25

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