Apple Remote Desktop

Developer(s)	Apple Inc.
Stable release
Operating system	macOS
Type	Remote Access Software
License	Proprietary
Website	www.apple.com/remotedesktop/

In the Safari app on your Mac, click anything identified as a download link, or Control-click an image or other object on the page. Choose Download Linked File. (Some webpage items can’t be downloaded.) Safari decompresses files such as.zip files after it downloads them.

Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) is a Macintosh application produced by Apple Inc., first released on March 14, 2002, that replaced a similar product called Apple Network Assistant.^[1] Aimed at computer administrators responsible for large numbers of computers and teachers who need to assist individuals or perform group demonstrations, Apple Remote Desktop allows users to remotely control or monitor other computers over a network.

Releases[edit]

The original release, which used the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) on port 3283, allowed remote computers (running Mac OS 8.1 or later) to be observed or controlled from a computer running macOS. It also allowed remote computers to be restarted or shutdown, to have their screens locked or unlocked, or be put to sleep or awakened, all remotely. Version 1 also included simple file transfer abilities that would allow administrators to install simple applications remotely, however to install applications that required the use of an installer the administrator would have to run the installer manually through the client system's interface.

Version 1.1 (released August 20, 2002) introduced the ability to schedule remote tasks.

Version 1.2 (released April 2, 2003) added a number of features that were designed to ease the administration of a large number of computers. Software could now be installed remotely on a number of machines simultaneously, without using the client system's interface. The startup disk on remote computers can also be changed, setting them to boot from a NetBoot server, a Network Install image, or a partition on their own drives. The client ARD software could also now be upgraded remotely to allow administrators to take advantage of new features without having to visit each individual computer.

Apple released a minor update on December 16, 2003 that brought ARD to 1.2.4. This update concentrated on security, performance and reliability.

On June 21, 2004 Apple announced Apple Remote Desktop 2 (released in July), which was designed to use the VNC protocol instead of Apple's original ARD protocol. This allows the ARD administration software to observe and control any computer running VNC-compatible server software (such as Windows and Unix systems) not just Macs and conversely allowing standard VNC viewing software to connect to any Mac with the ARD 2 software installed and VNC access enabled. This version also uses the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for most functions (on ports 5900 and 5988), which is designed to be more reliable than the UDP used in ARD 1.^[2] Another significant addition to ARD 2 was the Task List, that allows remote tasks to be queued and monitored, reporting their status (such as Succeeded or Failed). This release also dropped support for older versions of the Mac OS, requiring 10.2.8 or higher.

On October 11, 2004 Apple released version 2.1 which improved on a number of existing features while adding the ability to view observed or controlled computers in full screen, the ability to see the displays of computers with more than one monitor and support for mouse right-click and scroll-wheels.^[3]

On April 29, 2005 Apple released version 2.2 which added support for Mac OS X 10.4 along with several other bug-fixes and improvements to reliability.^[4]

On April 11, 2006 Apple released version 3.0 which is now a Universal Binary and features improved software upgrade functionality, Spotlight searching, as well as increased throughput and encryption for file transfers, and Automator support.

On November 16, 2006 Apple released version 3.1 which provides support for the new Intel-based Xserve Lights Out Management feature.

On October 18, 2007 Apple released version 3.2 which introduced Mac OS X 10.5 support and compatibility for third party VNC viewers and servers.

On August 20, 2009 Apple released version 3.3 which fixed many bugs and allowed function keys and key combinations to be sent to the remote computer instead of the local machine.^[5]

On January 6, 2011 Apple released version 3.4 which provides compatibility with the Mac App Store.^[6]

On July 20, 2011 Apple released version 3.5 which provides compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7.^[7]

On October 22, 2013 Apple released version 3.7 which provides compatibility with OS X 10.9, multiple monitors, and enhancements to remote copy/paste.^[8]

On January 27, 2015 Apple released version 3.8, which primarily added support for OS X 10.10, while also including various user interface improvements, a new icon, stability improvements and the ability to update the application using the Mac App Store, even if the application was not originally installed from that source. This version now requires OS X 10.9 or above.^[9]

On February 21, 2017, Apple released version 3.9, which heightened communications security between local and remote computers (including a Preferences checkbox to allow communication with pre-3.9 clients), added support for the MacBook Pro TouchBar, addressed various stability issues, allowed the user to export and import an encrypted list of computers with user credentials, and debuted the ability to use an 'Assistance Cursor' to call attention to items for the remote user. This version now requires OS X/macOS 10.10.5 or later.^[10]

Encryption[edit]

Prior to version 3, ARD encrypted only passwords, mouse events and keystrokes; and not desktop graphics or file transfers. Apple therefore recommended that ARD traffic crossing a public network should be tunnelled through a VPN, to avoid the possibility of someone eavesdropping on ARD sessions.^[11]

ARD 3.0 has the option of using AES 128 bit, the same as a basic SSH server.

Apple retained VNC's 8 character limit on passwords, so ARD cannot use passwords considered to be of 'minimum' length by contemporary standards.^[12]

ARD 3.9 included as yet unspecified enhancements to communications security that made the native mode incompatible with previous-version clients. A Preferences checkbox was provided in the Apple Remote Desktop app to explicitly allow communications with older clients. ARD 3.9.2 made the use of this checkbox optional for seeing clients in the list.^[10]

Legal[edit]

In November 2017, the United States International Trade Commission announced an investigation into allegations of patent infringement in regards to Apple's remote desktop technology. Aqua Connect, a company that builds remote desktop software, has claimed that Apple infringed on two of its patents. ^[13]

Restrictions[edit]

ARD does not support reverse connections to listening VNC viewers.^{[citation needed]}

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Network Assistant 4.0.3 available - Macworld
2. ^'Well known TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products'. docs.info.apple.com. October 18, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
3. ^'About the Apple Remote Desktop 2.1 Update'. docs.info.apple.com. July 28, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
4. ^'About the Apple Remote Desktop 2.2 Update'. docs.info.apple.com. August 26, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
5. ^'About Apple Remote Desktop 3.3'. Support.apple.com. September 16, 2009. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
6. ^'About Apple Remote Desktop 3.4'. Apple Inc. January 6, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
7. ^'About Apple Remote Desktop 3.5'. Apple Inc. July 20, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
8. ^'About Apple Remote Desktop 3.7'. Apple Inc. July 26, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
9. ^About Remote Desktop Admin 3.8 - Apple Support
10. ^ ^ab'About Apple Remote Desktop Client and Admin'. Apple Support. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
11. ^'LL0157.book'(PDF). Retrieved December 24, 2009.
12. ^'Password Length & Complexity'. January 23, 2007. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
13. ^Orlowski, Andrew (November 15, 2017). 'US trade cops agree to investigate Apple's 'embrace and extend''. Retrieved November 16, 2017.

External links[edit]

Click here to return to the 'A simple but effective Mac speed-up tip' hint

I also read somewhere that if you use a solid color background instead of a picture, that can also affect your speed performance.

Has macosxhints.com been hacked? I can't believe rob would let a comment like 'Well, screw you' appear in a hint on this site!

Actually, I glossed right over that when editing -- I guess the ^Ws worked on me, as I mentally erased the words :).
It was clearly in there as a joke, but since it could offend some, I've now removed it. Thanks for the heads up..
-rob.

Quitting the Finder will give you a nice boost as well -- saves the Window Server the trouble of drawing the Finder layer on top of the background image. I ran Let1kWindowsBloom repeatedly with and without the Finder running, and benched between 10% and 15% difference in speed..

Try it out yourself: http://www.vgg.com/rob/WindowsBloom.html

When Mac OS X was first released the ability to size icons up to their full, beautiful 128-pixel glory, I jumped at the opportunity. Doing so has naturally and happily prevented me from keeping too many items on my Desktop. I have three folders that have remained their relatively permanently: Downloads, Desktop Files, and News to Read–Share. There are a few other items there now that need to be cleaned up, but for the most part my Desktop is clear. I tend to keep my Dock that way, too. Only the applications I'm likely to have open all the time (eight of them) stay there permanently. I have easy ways of starting (LaunchBar) and quitting (LiteSwitch) the others.

---
- Ben Rosenthal
Q16 1.25 - Tiger

Ben - if you really like to apply the most parsimonious approach, I'd suggest getting rid of LiteSwitch and just use the built-in Mac OS X application switcher--unless you actually use the additional features of LiteSwitch not available in the standard app switcher: Pressing COMMAND-TAB brings up the switcher, but while continuing to hold COMMAND, hitting Q will quit the highlighted app (additionally ` will cycle backward/left and H will hide the app). No extra software needed. Of course there is that nasty bug recently noted about the log file in 10.4.3 growing very quickly for WindowsServer.logfile if you use COMMAND-TAB a lot.

I recently moved to using the full 128px icon size - gotta have the full effect of my cute Sumomo HD icon ^_^ I never was much for too many things on my desktop, but this keeps me on my toes.
Does this hint apply to Panther AND Tiger? There are people where I work (all Panther Macs) that use the desktop as a convenient dumping ground, and this would be a good hint for them.
And a realted hint - the default download folder for Safari, and often for other internet apps, is the Desktop. Create a download folder off the Desktop and set it in Safari. Keeps things tidy, especially in light of this hint.

I can't comment on the speed gains, but Panther does have a separate window for each Desktop Icon.
---
-- Pukku

Can anyone quantify the benefit to be gained by removing icons from the desktop? (In terms of available memory or processor performance.)

It probably could be quantified, but I doubt it'll come down to 43 icons is ok, but 44 will cause you trouble.
In general, the fewer resources you use, the more memory you'll have for running apps and the less swapping (memory to/from page file) will occur.
So keep desktop clean, clear out the Dock of little used apps, don't use dashboard, etc.
All generally common sense things, really.
Oh, and moving things from the Desktop to a folder, and then having that folder open, is just as bad, if not worse.

well, it seems to use between 20-50k per icon (see kBytes column in Quartz debug). So if you have 100 icons, you'd save at most 5 megabytes of memory. woohoo, err that's not much.
Now we'd need to compare the refresh rate (or time spent drawing the desktop) when say a window is moved on top of the desktop when there are 1 or 100 icons.
I bet you'll only see a few % difference in CPU usage in Activity Monitor. At most.
Most of it is saved in quartz's buffers anyway, only the revealed regions need to be redrawn.
So you'd have to count : comparing 100 rects (not much), then drawing n icons (not much (remember the icons are already loaded (ok they may be swapped))).
Really, (I must say I removed all icons after reading the hint ^_^), it feels faster, but it's probably just tidier !

This is something that I have done in the past. I usually have hundreds of items on my desktop and then I eventually organize it into a dump folder on the desktop, which now contains almost 600 items.

I've just looked at this, and while I was paging through the window list, I discovered that iCal has a _tremendous_ number of windows open. Does anyone know what it's doing with all of the windows (none of which are visible on screen)?
---
-- Pukku

Certainly drunkenbatman will benefit from all of this:
http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/i/wmd_desktop.jpg

Make your life easier. Get sterCleanDesk
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16481
It automatically moves everything on your desktop to the location of you choice.
It's only drawback is the maximum time interval is 15 minutes. So I don't leave it running but run it every couple of weeks.
Veru useful app.
---
Computer: Powerbook 15' Titanium 1Ghz 512Mb RAM 60Gb HDD SuperDrive Jaguar 10.2.8
Windoze switcher (August 2003)

Ok, turns out the download for sterCleanDesk is a dead link so I've loaded it up on my site.

Just go to this page

---
Computer: Powerbook 15' Titanium 1Ghz 1GB RAM 60Gb HDD SuperDrive Tiger 10.4.3
Switched: August 2003

To date the most effective speed up is to delete as many file from the ~/Library/ as possible.
I spent a while doing this, and when I emptied the trash it said it was deleting 20,000+ files. This was from all caches, preferences etc.
After that my machine performed MUCH better. I know this shouldn't make a difference, but it was the best thing I ever did.
Will

This was true since 10.1 days. It's a huge difference, who doesn't believe it can check it easily, just create a new user account and start your normal applications and see the difference. Off course, the better the machine you have, the speed-up boost is smaller. Don't expect miracles. This is especially true for laptops with slower hard drives.

'..delete as many file from the ~/Library/ as possible..'
Do you mean the User's Library folder?
Can you be more specific about what files would be safe to delete? There are so many files and folders in there that look like they're essential.

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false

You still have a Desktop folder; it's just not shown on the screen background. The disadvantage is that you can't drag things onto the background. An alternative is a folder action that moves anything put on the desktop to some other location.

Thanks for this. I had O(400) items on my desktop and I was beginning to notice the performance hit---even a ball when selecting an iTunes track, and that's on a dual G5. I dumped everything into a junk folder and the machine is notably faster! Thanks for the hint.

Yeah, I've had a 'junk drawer' in my Dock for a long time that I dump crap into. I also have a 'WEB URLs' folder in the dock for those, too. Both have custom icons. Recently, I've gone solid blue on my desktop, although solid black is apparantly the bet way to go.

How do you select solid black?

What about USING ALIASES OF FOLDERS on the Desktop instead of the original folders? Does it affect performance? Because if it does not affect performence, then it is AS SIMPLE AS REPLACING THE FOLDERS on the Desltop WITH THEIR ALIAS FOLDER!
That would be my tip!

It doesn't matter what type of items are on the Desktop; whatever they are, they are represented by a window backing store, which is the issue.
Replacing everything with aliases would gain you nothing.

While my desktop is already uncluttered I noticed with Quartz Debug that one of the aliases was constantly refreshing (also the time with seconds indicator and flashing ':' in the menuu bar). So I removed the alias and placed the original document instead and the refresh stopped. I also removed the seconds and flashing ':' from the menu bar.
I'm no expert, but it is my guess that some aliases would make a difference, especially if you have many of them.
Cheers!

You people can see your desktops to dump icons onto them? I allways have to many apps and windows open to see the desktop! I only see it when i hit f11 or when a software update forces a reboot!

I'd often wondered what on earth WindowServer was doing using up so much space/cpu!!! Thank you!
I have about 40 apps on my dock bar, is that too many?
I also have a lot of open finder windows ~30; I use them as work in process indicators. Are they bad too? There are so many finder-helper apps, I'm sort of lost on which one to try out to help me on that. I guess I'd like tabs, maybe that I could name, and then the usual finders column-view..
The finders are annoying because the window/list shows them un-alphabetized and by clicked-item rather than folder hierarchy..

I've been using an app called Tidy-it.app since 2001 With a push of the jpg button and all jpgs on my desktop are moved to a folder called jpg's on your desktop. press another button and all those files are organized. It trips over a few file types and reports that they do not exist. But, it gets enough of the common types to be useful.

You can use this opportunity to treat your computer in a whole new light. Use the desktop as a temporary storage are instead of a permanent one. If you empty out the Desktop every night, you will train yourself to store files in the places they should be stored.
To do this set up a cron script to automatically delete it every night at around 2 am.
crontab -e
0 2 * * * rm -r ~/Desktop/*
Of course, be careful when using rm as it will delete any files that you tell it to (consult 'man rm' and 'man crontab,' prior to doing this).

0 2 * * * mv ~/Desktop/* ~/.Trash/

I'm surprised this obvious lack of performance under normal use doesn't offend the bleeding jeebus out of anyone else. I used to keep just about everything I used on a daily or semi-daily basis on the desktop, because it's the most convenient spot. I felt the pain especially since I have a PowerBook, and I almost don't think any developers at Apple use PowerBooks except to make sure their software runs. I think that will be the case even more now that they can use quad-G5s and hyperthreaded dual Intel machines. This is the real cost of the gap in performance between the desktop macs and the portables -- the software is written on and for the desktops.

If I hadn't stumbled on a footnote to a post at drunkenblog, I never would have gone down that route. I have probably lost Apple at least fifty sales when various clients saw my PowerBook, said they were planning on buying one, and then cringed in horror when I exploded out of my seat to tell them now slow they are, and that it's a horrible mistake to buy one.

I've also been offended at how mdimport seems to get hung up very easily on .DS_Store files, but I haven't dug into that issue, since those files are so easy and undamaging to remove.

I completely agree. Why would Apple design a feature that convenient to be so performance crippling.
If this was an XP issue people would be foaming at the mouth. But let us not criticize the esteemed macintosh.

I've got a 3-year-old 15' Powerbook at work and a brand-new one at home. I have no performance problems. I have only aliases to two folders and whatever I happen to be working on at the time on my desktop.
I rotate some sort of slick, hi-res wallpaper every 5 minutes, and there is still no performance lag.
But then, I run MacJanitor (all tasks) and AppleJack (full auto, all tasks) once per week, need it or not. Just like your car, preventive maint. is what keeps it running in tip-top shape. I recommend running the full auto of Applejack just before going to lunch, though.. ; )
mk

I dont many icons on the desktop but startup takes lot of time. I clear the logs using macjanitor also but no change. How can i see which program in startup is taking time?

Sure, if you have more icons, you have more windows, and you consume more memory. If this really has an impact on the performance of your machine, you really need to buy more memory or get a faster CPU.
The WindowServer in most cases is memory bound. That is it trades computation time for memory because most of the time it is faster.
For this reason, most applications use buffered windows (there are other options, non-retained, and retained). That is, for each window, there will be another window that is off screen. The reason for this is that when the window the user is interacting with needs updating (ie, you move the mouse over the window) the WindowServer simply needs to copy the damaged region from the offscreen window and blast it over to the visible one. Similarly when the content of your window changes, applications are only supposed to update the region that changed. This drawing is performed on the buffer, which then is copied over to the 'visible' window.
Desktop icons are both a nightmare and a convenience. Old NeXT machines didn't allow you to put things in the 'desktop'. Which was great because it forced you to file your stuff in the right place from the get go.
<http://www.smartsoft.com/products/dotfiles/dotfiles.html> provides a service that allows you to toggle the use of the desktop (you still can put your stuff there, you just don't see it).

Sure, if you have more icons, you have more windows, and you consume more memory. If this really has an impact on the performance of your machine, you really need to buy more memory or get a faster CPU.

And this is exactly the problem with the PowerBooks. I have a 1.67Ghz G4, I can't buy a faster CPU. I have 2GB RAM, I can't buy more RAM. All I can do to get acceptable performance while using the Desktop is to upgrade to a G5, which is not extremely portable, despite the handles. :-)

My uninformed clients always used to 'think' that an cluttered desktop would make the computer slow. I argued it simply would make the computer harder to navigate and use -- but seeing as the Desktop is a folder like any other, it technically wouldn't make a difference in available CPU speed.
Interesting to note that they may have been right all along. :-)
A guy on The Unofficial Apple Weblog says this explanation is wrong, though:
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/12/09/simple-mac-speed-up-tip-for-desktop-pack-rats/
'Well MacOSXHints has it wrong. Sorry guys, what is slowing down your machines is the size of the Desktop memory being used up and having to hit the swap file. If you have one file @ 500 MB on your Desktop or 50 files @ 1K which one is going to use more memory to load the desktop?'
I'm curious to hear more discussion.

I just posted a reply -- there's no way that the size of the files represented by the icon makes any difference at all! OS X doesn't care how large something is until it's opened. But each file added to the desktop is one more thing the OS must track.
-rob.

Oh come on. The guy was running 700 fonts. Okay, maybe you do too—but I think this 'hint' should be qualified as such.

Works for me.
Thanks!