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Killer Leopard Trick - Finder Screen Sharing

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Talking about Screen Sharing, the reflection of iChat shouldn't be far away from your mind. Actually, the Screen Sharing itself is provided in your Finder.

Screen Sharing Whereabouts

Just now I told you that Screen Sharing is separated from iChat. To prove that, you could go to Mac HD ▸ System ▸ Library ▸ CoreServices which Mac HD is your hard drive name. Inside there, you will definitely find Screen Sharing.

Maybe it's just me, but I am too lazy to go through that trouble digging for Screen Sharing. I'll just invoke my application launcher, i.e. Quicksilver, type the search term : screen and

Drag the icon to your Dock for helping you out if you want to access it next time.

Show Bonjour Browser

After launching your Screen Sharing for the first time, you will notice that whenever you want to connect to other Mac, you must insert the IP address. It's much more troublesome than that of iChat.

Fortunately, running command line below will bring your Bonjour Browser Screen Sharing for your Finder. 

defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug 1

Secret Toolbar

It will be nicer if we got additional feature inside Screen Sharing. If you said so, this command line below will come in handy. Using the command line, you will get additional tool for your Screen Sharing. 

defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing 'NSToolbar Configuration ControlToolbar' -dict-add 'TB Item Identifiers' '(Scale,Control,Share,Curtain,Capture,FullScreen,GetClipboard,SendClipboard,Quality)'

It's a long line of command, isn't it? Actually, you can copy and paste it directly to your Terminal. Don't worry, no harm will be done to your Mac.

As the result, you will get toolbar with 6 secret features, which are :

  • Switch between control and observe mode
  • Share mouse and keyboard with user
  • Lock computer screen while you control
  • Capture screen to a file
  • Fit screen to full display
  • Image Quality

Teaser Screenshots

Connecting to Other Mac

Displaying Actual Size

Grayscale Screen

Deactivating Secret Toolbar

Dragging default toolbar will revert back your original toolbar. But I don't recommend you to do it because those new features are really amazing.

Categories: Development, Leopard, Popular, Tips and Tricks
Tags: Application, Leopard

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19 Comments

Adman 

Thanks for the tips!!

Todd 

I've been looking for something like this for months.  Thanks!

dirk Schelfhout 

I pasted the command line in a terminal.
I don't get the extra icons.
Maybe it no longer works in 10.5.2 ?
Dirk

dirk Schelfhout 

sorry . it works I just had to click the thingy in the right top corner. to show the extra icons.
Dirk

Tony Dehnke 

Any way to get this to show up in the ichat screen sharing window too?

Marc Steel 

That rules, thanks so much.

I 

Thanks but does anyone know why my curtain is grayed out and t says curtain isn't available for "Name".local?

Applecomplova 

Instead of pasting that second line into Terminal, you can spare some difficulty and open Screen Sharing, then go View > Show Toolbar, and the reverse just as easily.

Steven Kopstein 

wonderful - really helpful.  I love locking down the users screen - very darth vader.

thanks!

abelara 

sadly, it seems that 10.5.5 breaks the "secret toolbar" functionality.  unless there's a way around it or something i'm missing.

i had it enabled before 10.5.5 and then it stopped working after i updated.  i reapplied the terminal command and no new icons show up.

Ofir Gal 

Yes, the extra toolbar buttons have disappeared. I was about to release a small app that saves you having to type all this stuff. Suddenly after running the 10.5.5 update the buttons have gone. I spent the last half-hour checking my code...

I hope there's a way around this.

James 

10.5.5 did the same thing to me.

Geoff Liang 

Yep, same for me. Broken in 10.5.5.

I can only think the tool names are different.

Willett Kempton 

Just revert to Screen Sharing.app 1.0, that came with 10.5 through 10.5.4

The Screen Sharing.app that comes with 10..5.5 is Screen Sharing 1.0.1, disables this ability.  The .app file is in System:Library:CoreServices

Screen Sharing is a little buggy, perhaps more with these options enabled, but I don't notice an addiitonal problems in running with SS 1.0 under OSX 10.5.5

Christopher Robinson 

If someone has the 1.0 version of the screen sharing app, can you email it to me?  I unfortunately can't it.  Or, is there a way to extract it from my OS X install disk?

Christopher Robinson 

Sorry, my email is chris_at_filewarden.com

(replace the _at_ with @)

Sine 

Weird. I can get the first command to work but the command for the tool bars don't work for me. This is the 2nd website that I tried and it dosn't work with me for some weird reason.

Enter Your Name 

i can't connect to my friend's computer this way i only need his ip address right?

Erik MOust 

Anyone found a way around this, or a link were the old version of screen sharing is available?

Many thanks!!

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