Microsoft yesterday updated its Remote Desktop application to natively support M1 Macs. The updated version will see improved performance and battery efficiency for Mac users with Apple Silicon chips.
Remote Desktop is an app from Microsoft that lets users connect to a remote PC or virtual apps and desktops enabled by an admin. This could especially prove useful for Mac users who rely on Windows for certain purposes including developing apps for the platform. Thankfully, users also have an alternative in the form of virtualization through Parallels Desktop, which was just updated to support M1 Macs natively as well.
Although, Parallels Desktop is yet only capable of running the ARM version of Windows. So, for users whose workflow depends on using the x86 version of Windows, Microsoft Remote Desktop could come in handy.
Up until now, the app was supported by Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation framework that translates app made for x86 processors into apps compatible with arm64 processors on the go. While it works, it’s not the most efficient way to run an app on M1 Macs.
Apart from Apple Silicon support, the update, numbered version 10.6.0, brings these additional features:
- Added client-side IME support when using Unicode keyboard mode.
- Integrated Kerberos support in the CredSSP security protocol sequence.
- Addressed macOS 11 compatibility issues.
- Made updates to improve interoperability with current and upcoming features in the Windows Virtual Desktop service.
- Made fixes to address mispaints when decoding AVC data generated by a server-side hardware encoder.
- Addressed an issue where windows from remoted Office apps were not visible despite being present in the app switcher.
Additionally, Microsoft says this app requires macOS 10.14 or later.
You can download Microsoft’s Remote Desktop app from the App Store for free.
