Screenshots ScreenSharing provides easy access to Screen Sharing from the menu bar. Local and Back to My Mac hosts are automatically detected with Bonjour. Custom hosts can be added to be accessed over the internet. ScreenSharingMenulet was added by indygwyn in Aug 2010 and the latest update was made in Mar 2020. The list of alternatives was updated Aug 2011. It's possible to update the information on ScreenSharingMenulet or report it as discontinued, duplicated or spam. Dropbox: After years, Dropbox is still the first App I install on a new machine.Quick and reliable, Dropbox is a must for everyone. Dropbox has become a critical back-end component also to many of.
ScreenSharingMenulet connect to local, Back to My Mac and custom hosts via Screen Sharing from the menu bar |
Starting with version 2.5 ScreenSharingMenulet is available only on the Mac App Store
Minimum Requirements:
• Intel Mac
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later
Features:
• Real-time search for available local and Back to My Mac hosts.
• Option to create custom non-local hosts with host, displayed name and port.
• Option to display custom hosts inline or in a submenu.
• Optional display of Back to My Mac hosts and local IP addresses.
• Optional disable the Bonjour browser.
• AppleScript support.
• Export/Import of custom hosts.
• Retina display support.
• Wake On Lan (WoL) for custom hosts.
• German, Dutch, French and Swedish localization.
How to use:
• Just select one of the displayed hosts to connect via Screen Sharing.
• Create custom hosts in the pane 'My Computers' of the preference panel and choose them from a submenu (or optional from the main menu).
• Enable WoL in the pane 'My Computers'. A valid hardware address (primary Ethernet MAC-Address, format 11:22:33:44:55:66) must be specified.
• You can add ScreenSharingMenulet to the login items in the preference panel.
Hint:
If you want to connect temporarily to a shared host, create a new entry in the preference panel leaving the host field blank.
In this case the 'Connect to Shared Computer' dialog box of Screen Sharing.app will open.
Notification Center:
By default the bonjour hosts are not shown in Notification Center when ScreenSharingMenulet is launching or the bonjour browser is restarting.
If you want to be notified about all bonjour host changes, type in Terminal.app
defaults write com.klieme.ScreenSharingMenulet SkipBonjourNotificationOnRestart -bool NO
Wake On Lan:
Screen Sharing Menulet
As sleeping hosts don't appear in the local hosts section, WoL is available only for custom hosts.
Automatically detected hosts in the local hosts section can be added to the custom hosts by selecting the menu item while pressing the option-key.
After sending the WoL packet the connection can take some time, ScreenSharingMenulet waits for the notification when the target host is awake.
Note: On pre Snow Leopard systems WoL works only on wired computers.
See the article About Wake on Demand to enable Wake on Demand in Snow Leopard.
AppleScript example:
tellapplication 'ScreenSharingMenulet'
setnewServicetomakenewcustom serviceatendofcustom serviceswith properties {host:'111.222.333.444', name:'MyHost', port:5900}
connecttonewService
endtell
Known Problems:
The connection to Back to My Mac hosts is not reliable. It depends on router hardware and firewall settings.
Even if the password is correct an error message could occur. It has been tested with Apple Time Capsule and Apple Airport Express base stations.
Version Compatibility:
• ScreenSharingMenulet 1.7.1 and higher is compatible to Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard.
• ScreenSharingMenulet 2.2 and higher is compatible to Mac OS 10.7 Lion and Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion.
At a Glance
Expert’s Rating
Screen Sharing Menulet
Cons
Our Verdict
Leopard’s Screen Sharing feature, which lets you view and control the screen of another Mac, can be quite handy, especially for performing remote tech support for family and friends. But my experience is that many people use it mainly with computers on the same local network—in the same house or office. For example, I frequently use it to peek in on my desktop Mac from my laptop.
If this describes your use of Screen Sharing, Stefan Klieme’s ScreenSharingMenulet aims to make such connections easier by providing a menu-bar menu that lists any computers on your local network with Screen Sharing (or Remote Management—aka, Apple Remote Desktop) enabled. Choose a computer from the menu and the Screen Sharing application launches and initiates a screen-sharing connection to the chosen computer.
(Just as if you’d connected normally, the connection will be made immediately if you’ve previously saved the required username and password to the keychain; otherwise you’ll be prompted to provide this info.)
Thanks to Bonjour, ScreenSharingMenulet’s menu updates in real time, showing new Screen-Sharing-compatible computers as soon as they appear on the network.
The menu also provides a submenu that includes any computers to which you’ve recently connected. And if you’ve tweaked the Screen Sharing application to display its hidden browser, the menu displays any non-local hosts you’ve previously connected to, as well.
One feature that would make ScreenSharingMenulet even more useful would be an option to enter an IP address to connect to a computer over the Internet. But for quick connections on your local network, this simple program is tough to beat.
Want to stay up to date with the latest Gems? Sign up for the Mac Gems newsletter for a weekly e-mail summary of Gems reviews sent directly to your Inbox.