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Guide

How to control a Windows PC from a Mac, right in the browser

Lots of people have a Mac on the desk and a Windows PC somewhere else: at home, in the office, or under the stairs running something only Windows can. You can use that PC from your Mac without installing anything on the Mac. RemoteAccessApp opens it in a browser tab.

This guide covers the one-time setup on the PC, connecting from Safari or Chrome, and which Mac keys do what on Windows.

Download freeCreate a free account
  • Nothing to install on the Mac
  • Free for up to 5 PCs
  • No router changes

Updated · Works on any Mac with a modern browser, with Windows 10 and 11 PCs

What you need

  • A Windows 10 or 11 PC (64-bit) that's switched on, signed in to Windows and connected to the internet.
  • A Mac with a modern browser, such as Safari or Chrome.
  • A free RemoteAccessApp account. Create one if you don't have one yet.

There's no RemoteAccessApp app for Mac, and you don't need one. The apps run on Windows; on a Mac, the website is your console. It works the same way if you also use your Windows PC from a Chromebook.

Set it up

  1. Step 1: Install RemoteAccessApp on the Windows PC

    On the PC, download the installer from the download page and run it. It installs just for you, without administrator rights. Choose Set up this PC and sign in. Leave Start RemoteAccessApp with Windows ticked.

  2. Step 2: Decide who clicks Allow

    If someone will be at the PC, they click Allow when you connect. If it's your own PC and nobody will be there, right-click the RemoteAccessApp icon in the PC's taskbar tray, choose Unattended access, so your Mac's browser goes straight in. Protect your account with two-step verification.

  3. Step 3: Sign in on your Mac

    Open remoteaccessapp.com in Safari or Chrome on the Mac and sign in. Your dashboard lists your PCs and whether each one is online.

  4. Step 4: Open the PC

    Click the PC. Its screen opens in the tab, with your Mac's keyboard and trackpad driving it. A banner stays on the PC's screen for as long as you're connected.

Mac keys on a Windows PC

Your keyboard is sent to the PC key by key, by where each key sits, so a few Mac keys take on their Windows jobs:

Mac keys and what they do on the Windows PC
On your MacOn the PC
CommandThe Windows key (on its own, it opens the Start menu)
OptionAlt
ControlCtrl, so copy is Control+C and paste is Control+V on the PC
Shift, Return, Delete, arrowsThe same keys on the PC
Trackpad pinch (in Chrome)Zooms the view in and out (Fit zooms back to the whole screen)
Two-finger clickRight-click

The habit to unlearn

On the PC, Command+C is a Windows key shortcut, not copy. Inside the remote screen, copy and paste with Control, as you would on Windows. (With clipboard sync, Command+V also pastes your Mac's text on the PC.)

Shortcuts your Mac keeps for itself

Your Mac and its browser catch some keys before the page sees them. For those, open Shortcuts in the session's toolbar: it sends the Start menu, Task Manager, Run (Win+R), File Explorer, Alt+Tab, Close window (Alt+F4), Lock (Win+L) and more, one click each.

In full screen in Chrome (or Edge), the keyboard is locked to the page, so the Windows key, Alt+Tab and Esc go to the PC. Hold Esc to leave full screen. More in keyboard shortcuts in a remote session.

Windows never lets a remote tool press Ctrl+Alt+Del. If you choose it, RemoteAccessApp explains this and offers to open Task Manager instead, which is usually what you wanted.

Make it comfortable

  • Pick a picture quality. Balanced suits everyday use, Sharpest keeps small text crisp on a fast connection, and Saves data helps on a slow one.
  • Zoom in on small things. In Chrome, pinch on the trackpad to zoom; while zoomed in, hold Space and drag to move around.
  • A Retina screen and a big PC desktop can make Windows text look small. Zoom in, or raise the text size in Windows Settings on the PC.
  • More than one monitor on the PC? The free plan shows its main screen. With Pro, the screen picker shows each of them, or all at once. See multi-monitor remote desktop.

Copying text and files

Clipboard sync works both ways: Command+V on the remote screen pastes your Mac's text on the PC, and Copy from PC in Shortcuts brings the PC's newest copied text back to your Mac. Send files puts files from your Mac in the PC's Downloads folder. Both are free with an account; the session's chat also works for short bits of text, and you can attach files to messages.

How private is it?

A browser session is encrypted, but not end to end: our website decodes the picture in memory so Safari or Chrome can show it, and never records or stores it. Sessions from the Windows app are end-to-end encrypted, one of the differences in browser or Windows app: which should you connect with. Protect your account with two-step verification, and see remote desktop privacy for who can see what.

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