Remote Desktop preferences

Use Remote Desktop preferences to set options that affect how you interact with client computers.

Choose Remote Desktop > Preferences and set any of the options in the tables below.

General pane

Option

Description

Double-clicking a computer performs

Choose what double-clicking a computer does (Get Info, Control, Observe, Text Chat).

Show user idle time in computer status

For each client computer, show how long the currently logged-in user has been idle.

Accept messages from users

Accept messages from client users.

When quitting, warn about

Choose what warnings appear when you quit Remote Desktop.

Display Current User name

Choose whether to display the long or short name for the currently logged-in user.

Control & Observe pane

Option

Description

When viewing a computer with a larger screen

Choose whether to display an observed screen at its actual size or scaled to fit the observe and control window.

Scroll the screen

Set screen-scrolling options.

When controlling a computer

Choose whether to share control of the mouse, trackpad, keyboard, and Clipboard when controlling a client computer.

Use shared Clipboard

Enable the shared Clipboard between administrator and client computers.

Remember the setting for each computer

Start with the shared Clipboard, then remember the last state for each computer.

When connecting to a computer

Choose whether to display an observed screen in a window or full screen.

Task Server pane

Option

Description

Use Task Server on this computer

Choose when to store collected report data on a Task Server on this computer.

Use remote Task Server

Choose when to store collected report data on a Task Server on a remote computer, and set the location of the remote Task Server.

Reporting pane

Option

Description

Default Offline Reporting Policy

Set when to create reports. If you have a Task Server set up, it can gather these reports for you to view when the client is offline.

Upload

Choose the type of report data to upload.

Labels pane

Option

Description

Use these labels

Set the text and labels to use for labeling client computers.

Tasks pane

Option

Description

Always change focus to active task

Choose when to make the status of the current task always appear in the Remote Desktop window.

Enable task notification script

Use a script to notify the administrator when a task is completed.

Limit history shown in sidebar

Set the maximum number of completed tasks to display in the task history list.

Security pane

Option

Description

Allow control of this computer when this app is running

Choose when to allow this computer to be controlled by another computer even while Remote Desktop is running.

Encrypt network data when using Copy Items

Choose when to encrypt files that are copied between computers using the Copy Items command.

Encrypt network data when using Install Packages

Choose when to encrypt data transferred between computers using the Install Packages command.

Nonadministrators using this app have full or restricted access

Configure nonadministrator user privileges (see About Remote Desktop user mode).

Change Remote Desktop Password

Change your Remote Desktop app password.