BerthDeskBerthDesk User Guide
Windows (RDP), macOS, Linux and consoles (VNC) in one window — from adding a server to the shortcuts
🚀Getting started
The window
One window has four areas.
- Server list — on the left. Servers and folders in a tree; the search field above finds by name, address or tag.
- Session rail — the sessions you have opened. A color band tells which server each one is; click, or press ⌘1–⌘9, to switch.
- Remote screen — in the middle. The remote desktop is drawn to fit the window. Select a server without connecting and its settings card appears here instead.
- Status bar — at the bottom. Shows the connection state and what is happening right now.
Adding your first server
- Choose File › Add Windows (RDP) (⌘N) or Add VNC (⌃⌘N). The + under the server list does the same.
- Enter a name and the server address. Leave the port empty to use the default for the kind (RDP 3389, VNC 5900). RDP takes a user and password; VNC takes only a password.
- Double-click the entry to connect. A single click only selects it.
Changing the language
Choose one of 20 languages in BerthDesk › Settings (⌘,). Following the system language is the default, and the language you pick applies to this app only. Restart the app to apply it.
🗂Servers and folders
Folders and inheritance
Group servers with Create Folder (⌘⇧N). The user, domain, port, color and screen settings set on a folder are inherited by the servers inside it; a value set on a server itself wins. Make a folder per customer or office and enter the shared account once, on the folder.
Risk level — development · staging · production
Give a server (or folder) a Caution Tier and it shows as a color in the list and the session rail — a device to keep you from slipping on a production server. For production screens, pairing it with View Only is safer still.
Tags
Tags cut across folders: a server can be "Customer A" and "production" at the same time. Click a tag under the server list to show only those servers, or type #tag in the search field.
Click rules
- Single click — select. The server's settings card appears in the middle.
- Double-click — connect. If a session is already open, it switches to it.
- Right-click — everything you can do with that item: connect, extra session, settings, delete.
Exporting and importing the server list
File › Export Server List… writes addresses, users, colors and risk levels to a single file. Passwords are not included. On another Mac, Import Server List… reads it back; only the passwords need re-entering.
🔑Connecting and authentication
Windows — RDP
Enter the User and Password. For a domain account, put the domain (or workgroup) in Domain. Remote Desktop (NLA) must be enabled on the Windows side; the default port is 3389. Windows 10/11 Pro and Windows Server are supported (Home editions have no Remote Desktop server).
VNC — Linux · hypervisor consoles · BMCs
VNC usually authenticates with a single password (no user name). TigerVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, RealVNC, Proxmox and ESXi consoles, and the KVM view of iDRAC, iLO and IPMI all work. Servers with TLS (VeNCrypt) are detected automatically. The default port is 5900; Linux display :1 is 5901.
macOS Screen Sharing
- On the remote Mac, turn on System Settings › General › Sharing › Screen Sharing.
- In BerthDesk, use Add VNC with that Mac's address, its account name as the User and the account's password as the Password (Apple account authentication).
- On connecting you get that account's screen. If someone else is logged in, macOS asks them for permission on the remote side.
Stop typing the password
Enter it in the Password field of the settings card and it is stored only in the macOS Keychain. The settings file only records that a password exists, never its value. Set it on a folder and the servers inside share it.
A new server, or a changed certificate
VNC servers that use TLS usually have self-signed certificates, so BerthDesk checks the fingerprint instead of a certificate chain. On the first connection it shows the fingerprint; once you confirm, it is remembered in the Keychain. From then on, if the fingerprint differs, BerthDesk stops before sending your password and tells you — the same way SSH treats known_hosts. Accept a new fingerprint only when you are sure the server was reinstalled and its certificate really changed.
🖥️Screen
Fit window · fixed resolution
With Screen Size set to Fit Window, the remote resolution is chosen to match the BerthDesk window, and resizing the window changes the remote resolution too (DisplayControl for RDP, SetDesktopSize for VNC, on servers that allow it). If the server does not support dynamic resolution, the remote screen is scaled down to fit instead. Fixed Resolution requests the width and height you enter. On Retina displays the negotiation is in physical pixels, so nothing goes blurry.
Color depth
For RDP, Color Depth defaults to 32-bit (Best Quality). On a slow link, 16-bit (Fast) is noticeably lighter.
Focus mode · hiding the server list
View › Focus Mode (Screen Only) (⌘↩) hides the server list and the session rail, leaving only the remote screen; press it again to come back. Show Server List (⌘⇧S) collapses just the list. Text size (⌘+ ⌘- ⌘0) applies to the list and settings text.
The remote cursor
BerthDesk draws the remote cursor locally. With Scale Remote Cursor to Screen on (the default), the cursor shrinks by the same amount as the screen when it is scaled to fit the window, so it feels "inside" the screen. Turn it off to draw it at its original size.
⌨️Keyboard and mouse
The key boundary — ⌘ is the app, the rest is remote
While the remote screen has focus, any combination with ⌘ belongs to BerthDesk, and ⌃ and ⌥ combinations go to the remote as Ctrl and Alt on Windows. So ⌃C, ⌥Tab and ⌃⌥Delete work on the remote as they should. The left ⌘ is sent as the Windows key (⊞) — pressed alone it opens the Start menu.
Input languages and IMEs
Input-language switching and composition are decided by the remote's input method. Whatever input source the Mac is using, the physical key is what gets sent, so on the remote the right ⌥ is the language-toggle key (Korean/English on a Korean Windows keyboard type 1), and over VNC the right ⌘ is the Hanja key. Both sides are assumed to use a US layout. Letter case follows the remote's Shift and Caps Lock state.
Mouse
Clicks, drags and the scroll wheel over the remote screen go through in remote pixel coordinates. If you release a drag outside the screen, the button-up is still sent, clamped to the edge, so no button is left held down on the remote.
View only
With View Only on, no mouse or keyboard input is sent to the remote. Use it to monitor a production screen, or to watch a screen someone else is working on.
📋Clipboard
With Share Clipboard on (the default), the text clipboard travels both ways: ⌘C on the Mac, ⌃V on the remote, and ⌃C on the remote, ⌘V on the Mac. Non-Latin text is preserved — older Windows VNC servers that don't know the extended clipboard (TightVNC and the like) send CP949, and BerthDesk decodes that too.
If something does not cross over by itself, Session › Send Clipboard to Remote (⌘⇧V) pushes the current Mac clipboard to the remote.
🔁Disconnects and reconnecting
When the network drops or the Mac wakes from sleep, BerthDesk reconnects on its own. The color band in the session rail dims and the status bar shows "reconnecting". It retries with gradually longer intervals, and tries once more immediately when the Mac wakes.
A session you ended with Disconnect is not reconnected. Reconnect (⌘R) reconnects it at any time, and Close This Session (⌘⇧W) removes the session from the rail. A server that fails on its very first connection (wrong address or password) is not retried; the reason is shown instead.
⚡Shortcuts
App shortcuts always include ⌘. ⌃ and ⌥ combinations belong to the remote desktop, so the app never takes them.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌥Space | Bring the BerthDesk window to the front from any app (global hotkey) |
| ⌘N · ⌃⌘N · ⌘⇧N | Add Windows (RDP) · Add VNC · Create Folder |
| ⌘I | This Server's Settings… |
| ⌘K | Where to… — find by name, address or tag and connect |
| ⌘1 … ⌘9 | Switch session |
| ⌘↩ | Focus Mode (Screen Only) |
| ⌘⇧S | Show Server List / Hide Server List |
| ⌘R | Reconnect |
| ⌘⇧V | Send Clipboard to Remote |
| ⌘⇧W | Close This Session |
| ⌘+ ⌘- ⌘0 | Text larger · smaller · reset |
| ⌘? | BerthDesk User Guide |
❓FAQ
Where are passwords stored?
Only in the macOS Keychain. They are never written to the settings file or the export file.
Does BerthDesk collect usage data?
No. There is no telemetry in the app. The only request is the offline installer's update check, and even that carries no personal information. The App Store version does not make it at all.
macOS Screen Sharing is slow.
Intel Macs and older macOS versions serve third-party VNC clients only over a legacy path whose update rate the server decides. Other VNC clients on the same path are just as fast. A smaller window or a lower remote resolution helps. A high-performance mode for Apple silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later is planned for a later update.
The Hanja key does not work.
Some VNC servers do not pass the Hanja key (Hangul_Hanja) on to Windows — TightVNC is one. BerthDesk sends it exactly as the standard says, so switch to a server such as UltraVNC or TigerVNC, or connect over RDP.
I resize the window but the remote resolution stays the same.
The server has not enabled dynamic resolution (DisplayControl for RDP, SetDesktopSize for VNC). On such servers the remote screen is scaled down to fit the window. You can also set a fixed resolution to request the size you want.
Which macOS versions are supported?
macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
If it helped
BerthDesk is free and has no ads. You can support the maker through the Support button in the app or at xsapiens.kr/support. Questions: xsapiens75@gmail.com.