Inside OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Screen Sharing adds drag and drop file transfers
Screen Sharing, a remote access feature Apple first added to OS X 10.5 Leopard to enable viewing or controlling another Mac's desktop, is gaining a feature from Apple Remote Desktop: the ability to drag files from the local desktop into a remote session.
After connecting to a remote host, the local user can now drag files to the desktop, or target a specific app, invoking Exposé to, for example, drag an image file to a Pages document, select the window of the desired document, and place the graphic in the document.
Screen Sharing 1.4 in Mountain Lion now defaults to show a menu bar of text only items, presenting Control Mode, Scaling Mode, Capture Screen and the options to show the Shared Clipboard, Get Clipboard of the remote host, or Send Clipboard to the remote host. The toolbar is still configurable, so you can opt to show icons (the default settings in today's Lion) or show no toolbar at all.
Below, a remote connection to a Mac displaying Launchpad is depicted in the default settings of Mountain Lion's Screen Sharing feature (which can be initiated from the Finder by selecting another Mac on the network and asking to share its screen).
When copying a file, Screen Sharing shows a File Transfer window similar to Safari downloads or Messages file transfers.
When connecting to a remote host, via the Finder, Messages or by IP address using the VNC protocol, Screen Sharing allows you to login as a local user, via Apple ID, or by requesting access form the remote user.
Mountain Lion also enhances the ability to view a "virtual display," or the ability to log in as a different user than the one actually logged into the remote host. When connecting to a remote system as a user other than the one currently logged into the system, the remote user is prompted to "ask to share the display" or to "connect to a virtual display," which shows an alternative desktop.
As with today's OS X 10.7 Lion, as AppleInsider exclusively reported last March, users can switch between the virtual display and the "hardware display," or what's actually being shown on the remote system's screen.
14 Comments
Wait, so "virtual display" would allow me to use my networked machines as an extended desktop?
Like if I wanted to buy a couple of 27" iMacs, extend my main desktop to them and then use then pu them into a render farm?
Mountain Lion also enhances the ability to view a "virtual display," or the ability to log in as a different user than the one actually logged into the remote host. When connecting to a remote system as a user other than the one currently logged into the system, the remote user is prompted to "ask to share the display" or to "connect to a virtual display,"...
Umm, hello? Lion has done this from day one, not that it has ever worked well.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...2&postcount=15
Wait, so "virtual display" would allow me to use my networked machines as an extended desktop?
Like if I wanted to buy a couple of 27" iMacs, extend my main desktop to them and then use then pu them into a render farm?
I don’t think that’s what this is for (although there are apps like that; I use one that makes my iPad be a third monitor).
The “virtual display” means that someone is sitting at a Mac using it already; then you remotely connect to that Mac, but instead of seeing the ACTUAL display (what that person is doing) it creates a new display just for you, logged into your own account. Two people using their own accounts/desktops/files, simultaneously, on a single Mac--not seeing each other’s work, only their own.
It’s like using one Mac as two. (You do need a computer to connect FROM as well, but it doesn’t have all your stuff on it, it’s just a window onto the shared Mac.)
Umm, hello? Lion has done this from day one, not that it has ever worked well.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...2&postcount=15
Well, I suppose the article did say “enhances the ability” rather than “introduces a new ability."
Will Screen Sharing in ML allow you to view another user account's desktop on your own Mac (not a remote one)? It would be useful to Screen Sharing open a window and, say, monitor downloads or other processes taking place under another user account, without having to switch back and forth between accounts.
(Maybe this is already possible with Screen Sharing in Lion or earlier, but having done some searching, I haven't come across the method.)
I use Screen Sharing a lot, I love these new features.