Can MBP be an exact mirror of my iMac?

[legaleye3000]

If I work at home on an iMac and I want to use my Macbook Pro when I travel and want everything to look exactly the same as if I'm on my iMac (almost like an image backup and restore), is there software that does this? I'm looking for something more than Dropbox (that is only for files). I want all programs I install, the way my desktop looks, etc., to be the same exact on my Macbook Pro.

Thanks.

 

[ResPublica]

You"ll get closest with Dropbox; I use it to sync my Desktop folder as well, so my two Macs always have the same Desktop. If you pay for Dropbox, you can have for instance 200GB to sync, so you might be able to share an iTunes and iPhoto Library beyond simple Office files.

For the rest, try to use programs with Syncing capabilities, like Chrome, Safari, iWork and other iCloud apps. You"ll get very close to having identical machines.

 

[benwiggy]

Do they run the same OS version? If not, then that won't work, as the preference and data files for the OS and apps tend to be different.

The real problem is that some of the settings and preferences are unique to each Mac. So if you sync them, both computers will think they are the same one. This can cause problems if they are both on the same network. (e.g. different hostname and IP address for starters).

By all means use something like DropBox to sync all your documents, music, movies, apps, etc. But syncing preferences or caches, or anything else in the Library folder might cause trouble.

The alternative is to connect to the desktop Mac from the laptop using VNC, or similar.