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6 min fix Updated 8 Aug 2026Beginner

By , IT support technician

Quick Answer

Install Windows App from the Mac App Store — it is the client Microsoft previously called Microsoft Remote Desktop. Open it, click Devices, click + > Add PC, enter the PC name your IT team gave you, then double-click the card to connect.

How to Use Windows Remote Desktop on a Mac ​

Applies to: macOS
Article Type: How-To
Last Updated: 2026-08-08

Summary ​

Your company runs an application that exists only on Windows, and the answer is a work PC you connect to from your Mac. This article installs Microsoft's current client — Windows App, which replaced Microsoft Remote Desktop — adds your work PC, fixes the two things that make a remote session unpleasant on a Mac (tiny text on a Retina screen and a keyboard that copies with the wrong key), and separates the two ways of leaving a session, which are not the same thing.

Before You Start ​

  • A Mac, and the ability to install a free app from the App Store.
  • The name or address of the PC you are connecting to, from IT or from whoever set the PC up. It looks like DESKTOP-4F2K9 or 10.20.30.40, sometimes with a port on the end such as pc.acme.local:3389.
  • Your work username and password. Note whether your company uses a domain prefix like ACME\dsmith — it decides whether your sign-in is accepted.
  • The VPN, if the PC is at the office and you are not. Connect it before you open the client.
  • The target PC must be powered on, awake, and have remote access switched on. Two of those three are the responsibility of whoever owns that PC, and none of them are anything to do with your Mac.

Instructions ​

1. Install the Client From the Mac App Store ​

Microsoft renamed this client, and searching for the old name is the first place people stall.

  1. Open the App Store from the Dock or from the Applications folder.
  2. Click the search field at the top of the sidebar and type Windows App, then press Return.
  3. Look for the result published by Microsoft Corporation. Its App Store listing describes it as previously named Remote Desktop, which is how you confirm you have the right one.
  4. Click Get, then Install. Sign in with your Apple Account if the App Store asks. This is your personal Apple Account, not your work account — the work sign-in comes later, inside the app.
  5. When the button changes to Open, click it. Windows App launches and shows a welcome screen.

Why the name changed. Microsoft consolidated its remote-connection apps into one client called Windows App, and the Mac app formerly called Microsoft Remote Desktop became it. If a colleague or an internal guide tells you to install "Microsoft Remote Desktop", Windows App is the app they mean. Installing from the Mac App Store is the documented route on macOS.

2. Add Your Work PC ​

The client stores each PC as a card you click to connect, so this setup happens once.

  1. In Windows App, click Devices in the sidebar.
  2. Click the + (plus) icon at the top of the window, then choose Add PC.
  3. In the PC name field, type the name or address IT gave you — DESKTOP-4F2K9, pc.acme.local, or an IP address such as 10.20.30.40. Type it exactly; a remote desktop address has no autocorrect behind it.
  4. Leave User account set to Ask when required for now. You enter your credentials on first connection and can tick a box then to save them.
  5. In the Friendly name field, type something you will recognise later, such as Work PC. This is a label on your Mac only and changes nothing on the PC.
  6. Click Add. A card appears on the Devices tab with your friendly name on it.
  7. Double-click the card to connect.

Note: If the address contains a colon and a number, such as pc.acme.local:3389, type the whole thing including the port. That number tells the client which door to knock on, and leaving it off is a common cause of a connection that times out for no visible reason.

3. Sign In With Your Work Account ​

This is the step where a rejected password is usually a formatting problem rather than a wrong password.

  1. On first connection, a sign-in sheet appears asking for a username and password.
  2. In the username field, try your work email address first — [email protected].
  3. If that is rejected, try the domain format — ACME\dsmith. The backslash key on a Mac keyboard sits above Return. Many company PCs accept only this form, and the error message does not say so.
  4. Type your work password. It is the same password that unlocks your email, unless IT told you otherwise.
  5. Tick the box offering to remember the account so you are not retyping it every session.
  6. Click Continue. The screen goes dark for a few seconds and your Windows desktop opens in a window on your Mac.

Verification: You are in when the Windows taskbar appears along the bottom of the session window. If the session opens and immediately closes, someone else is signed in to that PC — see the Troubleshooting table.

4. Make the Screen Readable on a Retina Display ​

A Mac's screen packs far more pixels into the same space than the PC expects, so the default result is a sharp desktop covered in unreadably small text. This is a settings problem, not a limitation.

  1. In Windows App, click Devices, then click the pencil icon (edit) on your PC's card.
  2. Click the Display tab.
  3. Tick Optimize for Retina displays. Windows now renders at the scale your Mac uses, so text and icons match the size of everything else on your screen. Microsoft documents that this uses around four times more bandwidth — if your connection is slow, leave it off and set a resolution instead.
  4. If you left the Retina option off, use Resolution to pick a size from the list. A lower resolution makes everything bigger and sends less data.
  5. Tick Update the session resolution on resize to have Windows re-lay out its desktop whenever you resize the session window, rather than scaling a fixed image.
  6. Set Color quality lower if the picture is smooth but slow to redraw, or leave it at the highest setting on a good connection.
  7. Click Save, then reconnect. Display changes take effect on the next connection, not the current one.

Tip: Fit session to window and Update the session resolution on resize solve the same annoyance differently. The first stretches the existing picture, so text stays proportional but softens. The second gives Windows a genuinely new screen size, so text stays sharp and windows inside the session move. Try the second first.

5. Fix the Copy-and-Paste Keys Inside the Session ​

The single change that turns this from workable into comfortable: Windows copies with Ctrl + C and your hands expect Command + C. The client already handles the common cases.

  1. Connect to your PC and click inside the session window.
  2. Use the Mac shortcuts you already know. Microsoft maps these automatically inside a remote session: Command + C to copy, Command + X to cut, Command + V to paste, Command + A to select all, Command + Z to undo, Command + F to find, and Command + W to close.
  3. Use Ctrl for every other Windows shortcut. Anything not on that list reaches Windows as itself, so the Windows key combination is the one that works.
  4. If the characters you type come out wrong — a symbol landing on the wrong key, or a shortcut doing nothing — change the keyboard mode. In the macOS menu bar, click Connections, then Keyboard Mode, then choose Unicode or Scancode.
  5. Pick Unicode when you want the keyboard to behave the way it does on your Mac, and Scancode when arrow keys, spacebar toggles, or in-app shortcuts are misbehaving. Switching between them changes nothing except how your keystrokes are interpreted, and you can switch back mid-session.

Note: The Option key to the right of the space bar acts as the Alt Gr key in Windows, which is what produces the alternate characters printed on European keyboards. For the wider Mac-versus-Windows key map outside a remote session, see Understanding Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows Users.

6. Move Files and Text Between Your Mac and the PC ​

Two separate features do this, and knowing which one you need saves a lot of emailing files to yourself.

  1. In Windows App, click Devices, then click the pencil icon (edit) on your PC's card.
  2. Click the Devices & Audio tab.
  3. Set the clipboard direction. The options are Bidirectional, Local to Remote Only, Remote to Local Only, and Disabled. Bidirectional lets you copy in either direction and is the setting most people want.
  4. Choose where sound plays: On this computer, On the remote PC, or Never. Pick On this computer so you hear the session through your Mac's speakers.
  5. Click the Folders tab, tick Redirect folders, then click the + (plus) icon.
  6. Choose a folder on your Mac — your Downloads folder is a sensible first choice — and click Open. Tick the box in the Read-only column if you want the PC to read from it without writing to it.
  7. Click Save, then reconnect. Inside the session, open File Explorer and click This PC: your Mac folder appears there as a network drive.

Note: Your administrator can switch clipboard and folder redirection off for the whole company, in which case the options are unavailable or hidden and nothing you change on your Mac overrides that. If you need file transfer for your job, ask IT, naming your own PC in place of the example: "Please enable clipboard and drive redirection for my remote desktop connection to DESKTOP-4F2K9."

7. Disconnect or Sign Out — They Do Different Things ​

Getting this wrong is why work disappears, so it is worth thirty seconds.

  • Disconnecting closes the session window and leaves everything on the PC running: your apps stay open, your unsaved documents stay unsaved but present, and long jobs keep going. Reconnect later and the desktop is exactly where you left it. To disconnect, close the session window, or click Connections in the macOS menu bar and choose the disconnect option.
  • Signing out closes every program on the PC and ends the session. Anything unsaved is lost, and background jobs stop. To sign out, click the Start button inside the session, click your account picture, and choose Sign out.

Use disconnect for a lunch break or the end of the day. Use sign out when you want a clean start next time, or when someone else needs the PC and the machine allows only one signed-in user.

Tip: Save your open documents before you disconnect anyway. A PC that reboots overnight for updates takes an abandoned session with it, and a disconnected session is not a substitute for saving.

Troubleshooting ​

WARNING

The first time you connect, you may see a certificate warning — wording along the lines of the certificate could not be verified, with a Show Certificate button and a Continue button. It means the PC identified itself with a certificate your Mac cannot trace back to a trusted authority. On an internal company PC that is normal and expected, because the certificate was generated by the PC itself rather than bought from a certificate authority. Check that the name shown in the warning matches the PC you meant to connect to, then continue. If the name is one you do not recognise, or the warning appears on a connection that never used to show it, stop and send IT a ticket with the exact name on the certificate before you go any further.

Symptom / ErrorPotential CauseSolution
The connection times out with no error detailVPN not connected, or the PC is asleep or powered offConnect the VPN and retry. Then ask whoever sits at that PC to leave it powered on and check its sleep settings — a PC that sleeps is unreachable, and no Mac setting changes that.
We couldn't connect to the remote PCRemote access not switched on at the target PCSend IT a ticket naming your own PC: "Please enable Remote Desktop on DESKTOP-4F2K9 and add my account to the Remote Desktop Users group." Both halves are needed — the feature being on does not grant you access to it.
Your username and password are rejected, but they work for emailDomain prefix missing from the usernameRetry as ACME\dsmith rather than dsmith, then as [email protected]. Ask a Windows colleague which form your company uses if both fail.
The session opens then closes immediatelySomeone is already signed in on that PCMost work PCs allow one session at a time. Ask the other person to sign out, or connect later. If the PC is meant to be shared, ask IT whether it is licensed for multiple sessions.
Text is unreadably smallRetina scaling not enabledFollow step 4 — tick Optimize for Retina displays, or pick a lower Resolution. Reconnect for the change to apply.
Copy and paste does nothing between Mac and PCClipboard redirection off, or blocked centrallySet the clipboard to Bidirectional on the Devices & Audio tab (step 6). If the option is missing, redirection is disabled for your company — ask IT to enable clipboard redirection for your connection.
You look for "Microsoft Remote Desktop" in the App Store and find nothingThe app was renamedSearch for Windows App instead. It is the same client from Microsoft, under its current name.