A native Windows client, not a VNC viewer. Hardware-decoded up to 6K at 120 FPS with synced audio, Ctrl shortcuts that act as Cmd by default — pair once with a QR code or PIN. No Apple ID, no account.
Apple's Screen Sharing has no official Windows viewer, and there's never been an RDP server for macOS — so a Windows PC speaking RDP has nothing on the Mac to answer it. Remio fills the gap with a native Windows client that streams the Mac up to 6K at 120 FPS, hardware-decoded, with audio in sync. No VNC framebuffer smear, no chroma-subsampled text, no third-party VNC app to configure. Up to 240 fps on the Windows app, on a display faster than 120 Hz, from a computer that can keep up and runs the latest Remio Host.
Hardware-decoded H.265 on the PC — a 4K stream costs a few percent of CPU, not a whole core.
macOS uses Cmd where Windows uses Ctrl, so Remio swaps them for you by default — Ctrl+C on your PC keyboard fires Cmd+C on the Mac, and copy, paste, undo, and save all land where your hands expect. Every key forwards, F-row and modifiers included. To send Ctrl as Ctrl, turn off Swap Ctrl / Cmd in the Settings panel while you are connected (Session section); the modifier keys guide has the details. Clipboard, file transfer, and monitor switching all ride the same encrypted channel.
Copy on the PC, paste on the Mac — text and pictures sync automatically, in both directions.
Two installs, one PIN, no account. The only platform-specific work is the Mac's two privacy permissions and one Windows firewall prompt.
Download Remio-Host.pkg from remio.net/download — signed and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper opens it without warning. Launch the host once, grant Screen Recording and Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security, then quit and relaunch. Apple Silicon is strongly preferred for hardware HEVC at 4K; Intel Macs work for 1080p.
Download the Windows client from the download page and run it (Windows 10 build 17763 or later, or Windows 11). If SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC", choose More info → Run anyway — the download is signed and its SHA-256 checksum is published per release on GitHub releases.
On the Mac, open the Remio Host window — click the menu bar icon and choose Show Window. Its Connect page shows a QR code, a Device ID and a PIN. Type the Device ID and PIN into Remio on Windows — the PIN changes every five minutes. The pairing is permanent until you revoke it — no account, email, or password was ever created.
Select the Mac's name in the Windows client. Remio works out the best route automatically — a direct peer-to-peer connection on the same network (about 8 ms of processing latency), or an encrypted relay if a direct path isn't available. The session opens with the Mac's audio in sync. The benchmarks page documents the latency method.
If the Mac lives somewhere nobody sits, enable unattended access on the host so you can connect without someone clicking accept. Pair it with Wake-on-LAN and a sleeping Mac at home still answers. On a desktop Mac, also turn on Wake for network access in System Settings → Energy.
No RDP, no port forwarding, no router homework — just two apps and a PIN.
Remio connects the Windows PC and the Mac directly and finds a way through your router automatically — no port forwarding, no VPN, no router configuration. If a direct path is impossible, an encrypted relay carries the session instead.
Every session is end-to-end encrypted. Your screen never touches our servers — keys are negotiated directly between your two machines, and even the relay only ever sees ciphertext. Lock Remio — Remio asks for Windows Hello when it opens, so someone who borrows your PC can't reach your computers. A session that's running keeps running.
The processing pipeline — capture, hardware encode, the LAN hop, hardware decode — costs about 8 ms on the same network; the rest is your display's own 60 Hz refresh cadence, so your input lands before the next frame draws (measured internally). Over the internet, same-region sessions typically run low double-digit milliseconds. The connection is peer-to-peer when a direct path exists, relay only when NAT blocks it.
True 4:4:4 color for razor-sharp text is now live — Macs and NVIDIA- or Intel-powered PCs streaming to Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad, more pairs on the way — full color detail per pixel, no smearing on code, spreadsheets, or fine UI. Today's hardware H.265 stream already beats chroma-subsampled VNC.
If one of these looks like your setup, the five-minute install above is all that stands in the way.
The Mac laptop is in the bag; the Windows tower is the machine on the desk. Reach the Mac's apps, files, and messages on the big screen without switching machines — same keyboard, same monitor, one PIN between them.
The Mac mini at the office runs the tools only macOS has; your travel machine is a Windows laptop. Enable Wake-on-LAN and the office Mac wakes and answers from a hotel or a client site, streaming its full desktop back to the PC in your bag.
You run Windows; the person you help runs a Mac. Open their machine from your PC, fix it while they watch, and talk them through it — the use-cases page and the guide to fixing a computer from 500 miles away cover the setup end to end.
Apple's Screen Sharing gives a Windows PC only a VNC-compatible viewer — heavily compressed, low frame rate, color fringing on text, and no audio channel at all. Commercial bridges like Jump Desktop gate cross-platform access behind a one-time purchase plus a monthly subscription. Remio is free, native, hardware-decoded, and audio-complete. See Remio vs Jump Desktop, Remio vs Apple Screen Sharing, or the full compare hub.
Everything that was free before Remio Pro stays free, on every platform — forever.
Five questions the Windows-to-Mac direction tends to raise — honest answers below.
Install Remio Host on the Mac, install Remio on Windows, pair once with a QR code or a Device ID and PIN — free, no Apple ID, no account.