A native Mac client, not RDP. Up to 4K at 120 fps with 4:4:4 chroma and audio, your Cmd shortcuts mapped to Ctrl, gamepad forwarding for games — and it works on Windows Home. Pair once with a PIN, no account.
Microsoft's RDP host is Pro-only, so a Windows Home PC can't accept incoming Remote Desktop connections, and Chrome Remote Desktop caps out around browser-grade quality. Remio brings its own native C++/WinRT host that captures with DXGI and hardware-encodes on your GPU — NVENC, AMF, or Quick Sync — streaming up to 4K at 120 fps with 4:4:4 chroma and audio in sync. Home editions included, no $99 Pro upgrade, no registry patch.
4:4:4 chroma means full color detail per pixel — code, spreadsheets, and fine UI stay crisp.
macOS uses Cmd where Windows uses Ctrl, so Remio remaps them automatically — Cmd+C on the Mac fires Ctrl+C on the PC, and copy, paste, undo, and save all land where your hands expect. Every key forwards, and you can turn it off in Preferences → Keyboard → Auto Modifier Remap. Your Mac's natural scroll direction and momentum carry over, clipboard syncs both ways, and an Xbox or PlayStation controller paired to the Mac forwards to the PC as a native gamepad — rumble included.
Competitive titles run 144 fps at 1440p; AAA titles hit 60–90 fps in 4K HDR. See the cloud gaming page.
Two installs, one PIN, no account. The only platform-specific work is one Windows firewall prompt.
On the PC you want to reach, download Remio-Host-Setup.exe from remio.net/download and run it. It sets up a user-mode host plus a virtual display driver for headless operation. Windows 10 build 19041 or later and Windows 11 are supported — Home editions included.
When Windows Defender asks to allow Remio Host to communicate on your networks, tick Private (and Public if you use a hotspot) and choose Allow access. You can revisit it later in Windows Security → Firewall & network protection → Allow an app through firewall.
On the Mac (macOS 15 Sequoia or later), download the Remio client from remio.net/download or install it from the Mac App Store. It's a notarized universal binary, so Gatekeeper opens it without warning.
The Windows host shows a one-time 4-digit PIN. Type it into the Mac client. The request expires in 60 seconds if unused; once paired, tap the PC's name to connect. Remio picks the best route automatically — direct peer-to-peer, or an encrypted relay when a direct path isn't available. The benchmarks page documents the latency method.
Enable unattended access on the host so you can connect without someone clicking accept on the PC. Pair it with Wake-on-LAN so a sleeping PC still answers when you connect from anywhere — handy for a dev box with a GPU that naps between sessions.
No RDP, no port forwarding, no router homework — just two apps and a PIN.
Remio connects the Mac and the PC directly, and NAT traversal handles the hole-punching — 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 with AES-256-GCM and ECDHE key exchange over Curve25519. The keys are derived between your two machines and never leave them — the server only introduces the devices and cannot decrypt the stream.
Input-to-pixel latency measures under 5 ms on the same network and around 22 ms same-region over the internet, both verified May 2026. The connection is peer-to-peer when a direct path exists, relay only when NAT blocks it.
Pair an Xbox or PlayStation controller to the Mac over Bluetooth and Remio forwards it to the PC as a native gamepad, rumble included — so the game sees a real controller, not a synthetic one.
If one of these looks like your setup, the five-minute install above is all that stands in the way.
The gaming rig with the big GPU lives at the desk; you want to play on the MacBook from the couch. Hardware encode on the PC and hardware decode on the Mac keep the full frame rate, and a Bluetooth controller paired to the Mac drives the game natively. The cloud gaming page covers the tuning.
The Windows box with the licensed tools stays at the office; your home machine is a Mac. Enable Wake-on-LAN and the office PC wakes and answers, streaming its full desktop and audio back to the iMac at home in 4K.
The training rig or the CAD box has the GPU; the machine you actually sit at is a Mac laptop. Reach the Windows dev box with 4:4:4 clarity so logs and code stay sharp, and forward your Mac keyboard shortcuts straight through. The developers page shows the workflow.
Microsoft's Windows App caps around 1080p at 30 fps and needs a Pro upgrade to host on Home; Chrome Remote Desktop runs ~30 fps at 1080p through a browser with no 4:4:4 and no gamepad, and requires a Google account on every device. Remio is free, native, 4:4:4-sharp, audio-complete, and controller-ready. See Remio vs Microsoft Remote Desktop, Remio vs Chrome Remote Desktop, or the full compare hub.
Every feature is included, on every platform — nothing held back for a paid tier.
Five questions the Mac-to-Windows direction tends to raise — honest answers below.
Install Remio Host on the PC, install the Remio client on your Mac, pair once with a 4-digit PIN — free, works on Windows Home, no account.