Mac Setup: Microsoft Remote Desktop, Excel, and Claude — All via Homebrew

New to Mac? Here’s how to set up three essential tools in minutes — all from the terminal using Homebrew.

Step 1 — Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for Mac. Think of it as an app store you control from the command line.

Open Terminal (press Cmd + Space, type “Terminal”, hit Enter) and paste:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Follow the prompts. When it’s done, you can install almost anything with brew install.

To verify it worked:

brew --version

Step 2 — Install Microsoft Remote Desktop

Remote Desktop lets you connect to a Windows PC from your Mac — useful for accessing office computers, servers, or lab machines.

brew install --cask microsoft-remote-desktop

That’s it. No App Store login needed.

Setting Up a Connection

1. Open Microsoft Remote Desktop from your Applications folder
2. Click Add PC
3. Enter the PC name or IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.100 or my-office-pc.company.com)
4. Click Add
5. Double-click the connection to connect
6. Enter your Windows username and password

Tips

• Full screen: Click the green button or press Cmd + Shift + F
• Copy/paste between Mac and Windows: Works automatically
• Multiple monitors: Go to connection settings → Display → check “Use all monitors”
• If you can’t connect: Make sure Remote Desktop is enabled on the Windows PC (Settings → System → Remote Desktop → On)

Step 3 — Install Microsoft Excel

brew install --cask microsoft-excel

This installs the full desktop version of Excel — the same one you’d get from the App Store or Office.com.

Want the entire Office suite?

Install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook all at once:

brew install --cask microsoft-office

Activating Office

After installation, open any Office app and sign in with your Microsoft account or organization credentials. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, it activates automatically.

Step 4 — Install Claude Code

Claude Code is an AI assistant that runs in your terminal and inside VS Code. It can write code, edit files, answer questions, and automate tasks.

Install Node.js first (required)

brew install node

Install Claude Code

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Run Claude in the terminal

claude

On first run, it will ask you to sign in to your Anthropic account. After that, you can ask it anything:

> How do I create a pivot table in Excel using Python?
> Connect to my remote desktop and take a screenshot
> Write a VBA macro that formats column A as currency

Use Claude in VS Code

1. Open VS Code (install it with brew install --cask visual-studio-code if you don’t have it)
2. Go to Extensions (Cmd + Shift + X)
3. Search “Claude Code”
4. Click Install
5. Click the Claude icon in the sidebar

Now you can highlight code in VS Code and ask Claude to explain it, fix it, or rewrite it.

Bonus: Other Useful Brew Installs

While you’re at it, here are more tools you might want:

# Browsers
brew install --cask google-chrome
brew install --cask firefox

# Communication
brew install --cask slack
brew install --cask zoom

# Development
brew install --cask visual-studio-code
brew install git
brew install python

# Utilities
brew install --cask rectangle      # window management (free)
brew install --cask the-unarchiver # open zip/rar/7z files
brew install --cask iterm2         # better terminal

Managing Your Apps with Brew

# Update all apps
brew update && brew upgrade --cask

# List installed apps
brew list --cask

# Uninstall an app
brew uninstall --cask microsoft-excel

# Search for an app
brew search microsoft

Quick Reference

Task	Command
Install Homebrew	/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL ...)"
Remote Desktop	brew install --cask microsoft-remote-desktop
Excel	brew install --cask microsoft-excel
Full Office	brew install --cask microsoft-office
VS Code	brew install --cask visual-studio-code
Claude Code	npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Update everything	brew update && brew upgrade --cask

No clicking through installers. No App Store. Just one command per app.

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All tools mentioned are free to install. Microsoft Office requires a subscription for full use. Claude Code requires an Anthropic account.