Using Virtual Machines to test desktop apps on different platforms

While ToDesktop Builder allows you to run up apps locally, these apps can only be run by their corresponding platforms. This is great for quick testing, but you'll sometimes want to test your application on different platforms. To handle these cases, we either recommend using virtual machine software or accessing different platforms through a remote client.

# Using Parallels or VMWare to test apps on different platforms (mac only)

For MacOS users, Parallels or VMWare Fusion are the quickest ways to run Windows and Linux directly from your Mac desktops. To test your apps locally, you then have two options:

1. Either download ToDesktop Builder again in the Windows or Linux platform and hit the "run" button locally to build your app.
2. Publish your application from a staging environment (more on this here) and simply download the published app from the Windows and Linux machines.

# Using Remote Client solutions

While VMWare allows you to run the platforms locally, another solution is to use a streaming approach. This involves connecting to another platform via the internet and controlling that platform remotely. For example, you might provision an AWS or Azure virtual machine, and then use the following solutions to access the client interface:

• Microsoft Remote Desktop for connecting to an Azure virtual machine. This is also downloadable on Mac.
• RealVNC provides a way to access Windows and Linux machines remotely.
• TeamViewer is cross-platform and provides remote access to Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

As before, you can then either download ToDesktop Builder or download your published staging apps from these platforms.