Leopard Review: Screen Sharing

November 3, 2007   0 Comments
HTPC Media Management is tough if you don't utilize a blue tooth keyboard or mouse, and the Apple Remote can only go so far. In the past we suggested utilizing Chicken of the VNC, an free VNC tool, which set up properly gives you access to your HTPC from another system. With Leopards release with over 350 new features, Apple has provided an alternative to Chicken of the VNC, in Screen Sharing. The more popular new features been documented over and over again, while Screen Sharing has seemed to slip under the radar.

Since Tiger, the Apple Remote Desktop service was available through your Sharing Preferences. With a Password you were able to connect and control the system with a VNC Application such as Chicken of the VNC or Apple's Remote Desktop. The results were good, but there was a lot of room for improvement. Little things such as refresh rate, screen scaling and a right mouse click, made the VNC interface challenging. Chicken of the VNC was also a very old application, with the last update coming in January of 2004. But for being an open-source free application it was great! Apple Remote Desktop can run all sorts of reports, but was really designed for IT Systems Management.


Leopard's Screen Sharing addresses those issues, and integrates a light weight, viewer right into the operating system. The response time and screen's refresh rate are extremely smooth. I could easily perform a days work through the Screen Sharing window without any issues. A few shortcuts such as screen captures and expose will trigger your local machine. Additionally Screen Sharing is backward compatible with Tiger. If you have the Remote Desktop service running in Tiger, Leopard can control it with Screen Sharing. The best part is that its extremely easy to set up, needing only a few clicks.

How To in 2 Steps

• Enable Remote Desktop / Screen Sharing
  On your remote computer open your sharing preferences. In OS-X Tiger you will enable 'Apple Remote Desktop'. We added a password in the Access Privileges for extra safety. In Leopard you have two options, you can enable Screen Sharing or Remote Management. Remote Management is specifically designed to work with Apple's Remote Desktop, while Screen Sharing is the slimmer version.


• Connecting
  From the 'Shared' panel in an Open Finder window, select your HTPC. A 'Share Screen...' button will now be available under the Connect As button. This will open your remote system in a new window. This window can be scaled smaller to conserve desktop space.

Labels: Leopard, Tips and Tricks