Mac Screen Sharing limited to specific app/window

[ctyrider]

Does anyone know of a good solution to screen share individual apps between my Mac and another computer? To emphasize, I am not looking to share the entire desktop - just a specific application window.

So ideally, something like a VNC Server, which lets me choose the open app window to share. The client computer accessing this window will be Windows based.

 

[GGJstudios]

Does anyone know of a good solution to screen share individual apps between my Mac and another computer? To emphasize, I am not looking to share the entire desktop - just a specific application window.

So ideally, something like a VNC Server, which lets me choose the open app window to share. The client computer accessing this window will be Windows based.

I use TeamViewer, which is free for personal use and works with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Ubuntu, iPhone, iPad, etc. It's very secure and quite simple to set up and use (no messing around with ports), which comes in handy if providing remote support to those who aren't very computer literate. You can talk them through the setup on their end and be connected to them in less than a minute. I prefer it over LogMeIn because it includes free file transfers between computers, a feature I use frequently. Also, TeamViewer doesn't affect audio settings on OS X, as many have reported that LogMeIn does.

You can share either the entire desktop or a single window if you prefer.

 

[ctyrider]

You can share either the entire desktop or a single window if you prefer.

TeamViewer is pretty close, but I don't see any way to restrict the control to a specific windows from a Mac/Server side. I see you can limit your view to a single window on the Client side, but I would like to restrict the viewer to a specific app from the Server.

Is there a way to do it, which I may have missed?

 

[GGJstudios]

TeamViewer is pretty close, but I don't see any way to restrict the control to a specific app from a Mac/Server side. I see you can limit your view to a single window on the Client side, but I would like to restrict the viewer from the Server.

Is there a way to do it, that I may have missed?

Did you see this?

 

[ctyrider]

Did you see this?

I did. It looks like this only works on a Windows client. On a Mac - I only get an option of sharing the entire screen:

Have you been able to share just one window from a Mac?

 

[GGJstudios]

I did. It looks like this only works on a Windows client. On a Mac - I only get an option of sharing the entire screen:

Image

Have you been able to share just one window from a Mac?

I haven't played with that feature in a very long time. I mostly use TeamViewer to provide remote desktop support for Mac and Windows users, so I always have full access to the entire remote computer.

 

[ActionableMango]

Does anyone know of a good solution to screen share individual apps between my Mac and another computer? To emphasize, I am not looking to share the entire desktop - just a specific application window.

Bumping this very old post because I have the same need and I cannot figure anything out that will do this with Mac Server and Windows Client. @ctyrider, did you ever figure out a solution?

EDIT:

Well to answer my own question, it appears that TeamViewer for Mac has allowed application selection since version 10 in 2014.

From https://blog.teamviewer.com/teamviewer10-for-mac/

Application Selection For Mac
Another great new feature on the Mac version of TeamViewer 10 is the ability to select specific apps to screen share during meetings. This means that you don’t have to share your entire screen, but only a specific program that’s running, say PowerPoint for example.​

I will give it a try with MacOS host and Windows client.

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm sure there are several more options available now than there were 4 years ago. For example, Skype offers screen sharing for either the entire screen or a selected window.

 

[ActionableMango]

I'm sure there are several more options available now than there were 4 years ago. For example, Skype offers screen sharing for either the entire screen or a selected window.

I can't seem to find any that simply work. On Windows, there are solutions such as VLC where the host computer can allow remote access for single application. Then I can remote into the host and just see that application.

The problem with Skype is that you have to have two accounts and two people. One calls the other, the other has to answer and then share the desktop or application. That is a very manual process that assumes two people, which is not a solution for someone wanting to remote into an unmanned computer with something like VLC or RDP. (Please let me know if I'm incorrect for example if there's some sort of RDP-like mode for Skype that I'm unaware of.)

TeamViewer is a little bit better in that it doesn't require two people and two accounts, but it is still a very manual process. For one thing, the host computer's access number and password are random, not configurable, and keep changing all the time. That's a huge burden right there. And even then there's no way to limit the sharing to a single the application at the host. The client has to remote in, then select the application manually, every single time.

I suspect that if you pay for TeamViewer instead of using the free version that perhaps you can set a static login and password, but the other problem still exists--the host cannot specify one single application to share. Instead the client has to do it, and has to do it manually every single login.

 

[GGJstudios]

The problem with Skype is that you have to have two accounts and two people. One calls the other, the other has to answer and then share the desktop or application. That is a very manual process that assumes two people, which is not a solution for someone wanting to remote into an unmanned computer with something like VLC or RDP. (Please let me know if I'm incorrect for example if there's some sort of RDP-like mode for Skype that I'm unaware of.)

Your earlier post seemed to focus only on the sharing of a specific app, rather than the whole desktop, which Skype (and others) do. It wasn't clear to me from your earlier post that you were looking for a solution to remotely access an unattended computer. AFAIK, Skype doesn't have that kind of functionality.

TeamViewer is a little bit better in that it doesn't require two people and two accounts, but it is still a very manual process. For one thing, the host computer's access number and password are random, not configurable, and keep changing all the time. That's a huge burden right there.

Even the free version of TeamViewer allows remote access to an unattended computer. You can set a static password on the remote computer that will always be used by you, which is separate from the random password that Skype generates. Connecting can be a simple operation that takes 5 seconds.

And even then there's no way to limit the sharing to a single the application at the host. The client has to remote in, then select the application manually, every single time.

I suspect that if you pay for TeamViewer instead of using the free version that perhaps you can set a static login and password, but the other problem still exists--the host cannot specify one single application to share. Instead the client has to do it, and has to do it manually every single login.

If you connect remotely to an unattended computer with TeamViewer, you can launch any app you want. You don't need anyone at the other end, except to perform the initial setup one time. After that, you can remotely access the computer and any app whenever you want.

 

[ActionableMango]

Even the free version of TeamViewer allows remote access to an unattended computer. You can set a static password on the remote computer that will always be used by you, which is separate from the random password that Skype generates. Connecting can be a simple operation that takes 5 seconds.

Thank you for the response and correction. I will investigate that tonight. I was under the impression that they couldn't change because the fields were greyed/out or uneditable, and changed randomly every time the application started.

Static access number and password fixes most of my complaint. I wish I wouldn't have to manually select just the one app I want every time, but that is not too much of a burden and at least it is possible.