Using iMac as 2nd screen for windows PC? :/

[mixel]

.. By any means possible here, too. On my desk I have a 27" iMac and a windows setup on a smaller monitor. Sometimes I really could do with shuffling Windows' windows off to a second display, and there's no more room on the desk for more monitors, so it'd be ideal if I could somehow get them onto the iMac's screen.

It doesn't have to be full screen, in fact it'd be much better if it was a resizable window on the iMac working as a 2nd screen for the windows machine over the LAN.. Like how Duet display works to use an iPad as second display... Just on an iMac.

I'd also be up for some sort of video capture/preview hardware thing? I currently have a HDMI capture card but its latency is far too high for this, its preview over USB is a good few seconds behind.

Does anyone have any ideas how this could be achieved? Thanks in advance.

 

[_Kiki_]

sorry but no, because there is no display target mode in iMac Retina

 

[mixel]

sorry but no, because there is no display target mode in iMac Retina

Which is a shame, but not really the only thing I'm looking for.

I'd be happy with streaming some windows over onto the Mac.. I really don't need the full monitor experience.

 

[Khaleal]

sorry but no, because there is no display target mode in iMac Retina

Is that possible in non-Retina 2012/2013 iMac 27" models?

 

[nilk]

Microsoft Remote Desktop client on the Mac doesn't do the job? In my experience the RDP protocol is extremely efficient, works well even over low bandwidth connections. If you could connect the two machines over ThunderBolt and route networking over that you'd have more than enough bandwidth.

This of course requires an edition of Windows that has remote desktop as an option (e.g. Windows 10 Pro does, Home edition does not).

 

[redheeler]

Is that possible in non-Retina 2012/2013 iMac 27" models?

Yes, but the source computer must have Thunderbolt for it to work. This rules out nearly all non-Mac devices.

Microsoft Remote Desktop client on the Mac doesn't do the job? In my experience the RDP protocol is extremely efficient, works well even over low bandwidth connections. If you could connect the two machines over ThunderBolt and route networking over that you'd have more than enough bandwidth.

This of course requires an edition of Windows that has remote desktop as an option (e.g. Windows 10 Pro does, Home edition does not).

That's a possible solution, but still creates enough lag that doing something like gaming or watching a movie wouldn't work out.

 

[mixel]

Microsoft Remote Desktop client on the Mac doesn't do the job? In my experience the RDP protocol is extremely efficient, works well even over low bandwidth connections. If you could connect the two machines over ThunderBolt and route networking over that you'd have more than enough bandwidth.

This of course requires an edition of Windows that has remote desktop as an option (e.g. Windows 10 Pro does, Home edition does not).

Can RDP be used to do make a virtual a second display though? It wouldn’t be much help mirroring the pc screen, which is what I’ve used it for previously.

 

[jlseattle]

SO, in your case I think the best solution is dumping the windows machine (it sucks to have two computers at one desk). Get parallels and a second monitor. Then you can work on windows machine in Parallels and have two monitors. If you need one additional monitor you could get an iPad and have that to view content. But even better, just get rid of the windows machine hahaha.

 

[nilk]

Can RDP be used to do make a virtual a second display though? It wouldn’t be much help mirroring the pc screen, which is what I’ve used it for previously.

Sorry, didn't quite get what you meant, but now I think I do. Without the server edition of Windows, this is not possible without a hack. Example of a hack: https://deployhappiness.com/concurrent-remote-desktop-crdp-for-windows-10/

Though even in that case these are separate desktops and you won't be able to move windows between them. Probably not ideal.

Found a couple of desktop extender options that I think do what you are talking about, but I think these are VNC-based, so the more bandwidth between the two machines the better:

http://spacedesk.ph/
https://www.zoneos.com/zonescreen.htm

Those are free. SpaceDesk appears to be more current with Windows 10 support. There also appears to be commercial software called "MaxiVista" but I can't tell if that's maintained anymore.

A VNC-based solution isn't going to be very efficient, but maybe if you can establish enough bandwidth between the two machines you can get something acceptable.
[doublepost=1504117360][/doublepost]Avatron Air Display may be another option (though it is not free). Their latest version does NOT support Windows as a "host" (they are working on it), but the previous 2.0 version does:
https://avatron.com/support/downloads/