For the most part the latest Remote Desktop 10 app is the best option if you need to RDP on your Mac. However Remote Desktop 10 requires macOS Sierra 10.12 or later, so there’s several reasons why it might not be possible or convenient to install it:
- Your Mac is too old to run macOS Sierra
- Updating macOS may break other legacy applications on your Mac
- You don’t have an Apple ID available to use to upgrade macOS via the App Store
- You don’t have time to upgrade macOS
Installing Remote Desktop 8 is a good workaround, as it can run on older versions of macOS. However unfortunately it is no longer available on the Mac App Store or from Microsoft. There are some software download sites that offer Remote Desktop 8, however they are likely to contain malware.
For these reasons we have uploaded Remote Desktop 8 for Mac right here to Macsx. The application has been taken from an older Mac which already had it installed, so no chance of malware. Simply click on the button below to download it:
Looking for the newer Remote Desktop 10 instead?
Then check out this macsx article on how to download Remote Desktop 10 for your Mac without using the App Store.
Issues? Questions?
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any issues or questions about using Remote Desktop 8 on your Mac!
Many thanks!! It worked!!
God!! thank you
Thanks!
thank you very much from malaysia
What a champion. The real MVP
U da boss
Graciaaaaaas!!!!!!!! thank you so so so so so much!!!!
thx for sharing el capitan is still alive <3
Absolutely agree – you are great. Thanks for sharing!!
Excellent! Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Excellent! Thanks for sharing, this saved my old Macbook air.
M$ RDP Client for MAC OS requires the server have FIPS support enabled and it is not configurable. This breaks a lot of software especially Quickbooks. I hope V8 does not require FIPS
Thanks a lot for this version !
Running on El capitan and it was very difficult to find a good version.
Very helpfull !
Grazie!!!!! You made my day! Incredibly helpfull!!
Thank you very much, i try more than 10 sites before finding the solution here.
Many thanks, this works great!
The problem is not as much as having an old machine (I upgraded to a 2015 which runs fine with Big Sur) as it is with the version 10 trying to be too smart “for my own sake” as it tries to make the resolution good by itself and messes up on my second display…. I need the old version.
Thank you!!! Running Yosemite 10.10 on older machine and needed older RD to connect to PC (Windows 10) at work. Could only find most recent RD version until I came across your site. This RD version was able to do the job. Thanks again!!!
Hello, not a mac expert, I’m trying to help a friend. how do I install?
Download Remote Desktop 8 using this link: https://macsx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Microsoft-Remote-Desktop.zip
Then just unzip the file and open it.
Many thanks to you!!! You are hero!
Tnx so much
Is this also compatible with Big Sur? Did you tested this already?
If you’re using Big Sur then you can use the newer Remote Desktop 10 app. If you’d like to get it without using the App Store check out this article.
Remote Desktop 8 is useful for older versions of macOS which don’t support Remote Desktop 10.
Thank you so very much for this old version for OSX. You’re a hero 🙂
I really thank you so much for this issue, my iMac OS is ended up with El Capitan (early 2008) and with this release everything is working fine
Thanks so much! needed this to work from home. You are god
Been searching around for this, runs fine on my old MacOSX El Capitan 10.11, thanks a bunch
THANK YOU !!!
Been searching for hours….
thanks you made our days .