Working in a mixed operating system environment can be a pain as it means having to switch between machines - this is time consuming as well as irritating. There are various tools that can be used to remotely access one machine from another assuming that the same operating system is installed on both, but what about if you need to access a Windows PC from a Mac?

This is where CoRd comes in handy. Using the RDP protocol, you can connect to a computer running Windows XP or greater and control is as if you were sat in front of it. CoRD can be used in windowed or full screen mode and the screen will be automatically resized to suit the monitor you are using.

Frequently used computers can be bookmarked for easy access and when you're working with a remote computer you can take advantage of a synchronised clipboard to copy information from one machine to the other.

Performance is generally impressive, but should you find things slow, you can display features of the remote computer such as the desktop background and Windows theme to help speed things up.