In the Screen Sharing app, just type in the hostname or the Apple ID that is associated with that Mac. Now to control that other Mac, here’s all you need to do. This turns on the Virtual Node Controller (VNC) service on your Mac (see image below): (Be sure to turn on Screen Sharing in the System Preferences Sharing pane) While you’re in the Sharing System Preferences pane, be sure to click the Screen Sharing service check box on the left side. That’s the hostname (for example, “Barbaras-imac.local”). You’ll see the name of the Mac listed at the top, and just below that will be an name followed by “.local”. To find a Mac’s hostname, launch System Preferences, then open Sharing. On a local network, entering the hostname is probably the easiest way to connect to another machine.

Double-click the Screen Sharing icon, and all you’ll get is this small dialog: (The minimalist Screen Sharing dialog) Inside the CoreServices folder is an Applications folder, and there you’ll find an app icon for Screen Sharing. Double-click the Macintosh HD icon, then open the System folder, then the Library folder, and finally the CoreServices folder (see image below): (The crooked path to CoreServices) In the Finder window will be icons for Macintosh HD (or whatever your Startup Volume is named), any external drives, “Network” and Remote Drives - if you don’t see Macintosh HD, go to Finder Preferences, Sidebar, and check the box next to the drive name to add it to the Finder sidebar. To find the app, open a Finder window, scroll down to the Devices, then click on the name of your Mac. This is the System library, not the User library. The app can be found in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications. But as reader Chris pointed out, there’s a Screen Sharing app hidden deep in the dusty basement of macOS that is used by Apple’s own support personnel to remotely control Macs. This suggestion completely surprised me, as I either had never heard of it or had forgotten about it in the years since I was an Apple consultant. This post outlines many of the suggestions in those comments, and if you were one of the readers who provided a solution, please check out the bottom of this post… At the tail end of that post was a request for readers to add their suggestions for other remote control solutions, and we were amazed at the response. As the title suggests, we outlined three ways - Back to My Mac, Apple Remote Desktop, and Parallels Access - to access and control a remote Mac. Recently, we published a how-to guide titled “ Three ways to remotely access and control a Mac“.

Remote desktop mac vnc