How to use DEX without the Windows/Mac Dex app using adb and scrcpy

Samsung discontinues Native Windows and Mac Applications for Dex. The below guide will assist you in enabling Dex on your Mac/Windows PC with the help of some tools.

The guide assumes that you already have the android-tools (adb) installed on your computer and you are familiar with what it does and some basic commands. If you dont, I suggest you follow this guide instead

Samsung discontinues Native Windows and Mac Applications for Dex

Samsung's recent announcement that the DeX app for Windows will be discontinued with One UI 7 has left many users frustrated. While the "Link to Windows" feature offers some similar functionalities, it lacks the full desktop-like experience provided by DeX.

Now the only way left to enable Dex is by connecting your phone to a monitor supporting Dex either wired (HDMI) or wirelessly (Miracast).

The below guide will assist you in enabling Dex on your Mac/Windows PC with the help of some tools.

How to connect your phone with your Mac/Windows without the official Dex on PC app

To accomplish this we need to do 3 things:

• Install scrcpy: A tool that will allow us to leverage adb to mirror the phones monitor to our PC/Mac.

• Install adb-wifi (optional): A tool that will help us connect our phone to our pc wirelessly.

• Figure out a way to enable DEX (details below)

Here are all the steps to make this work:

Step 1/3: Enable USB Debugging on Your Android Device (if you have not done this already):

1. Go to your phone's Settings > About Phone.

2. Tap on Build Number 7 times to enable Developer Options.

3. Go back to Settings and open Developer Options.

4. Enable USB Debugging.

Step 2/3: Install scrcpy on your PC:

Windows:

1. Visit the Official Website [here](https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/master/doc/windows.md#on-windows)

2. Download the latest zip version (or use any of the package manager listed if you have one installed: Chocolatey or Scoop)

3. Extract the ZIP File: Find the downloaded ZIP file on your compute and extract the Contents by Right-clicking on the ZIP file and select "Extract All." Choose a destination folder for the extracted files. No Formal Installation: Scrcpy doesn't require a traditional installation process. Simply extracting the ZIP file is sufficient.

4. Remember where you extracted the files. We will use this file later.

Mac:

1. Visit the Official Website here

2. Download the latest version (or use any of the package manager listed if you have one installed: HomeBrew or MacPorts)

3. Extract the contents of the gz file to a folder of your choice.

4. Remember where you extracted the files. We will use this file later.

Step 3/3: Enable Dex on your phone:

We need to enable DEX on our phone with one of the options below:

• 1st Option: By connecting our phone wirelessly, to a monitor/tv that supports Dex. More details here

• 2nd Option: Connect your phone with an HDMI, either to a monitor/tv or just by using a dummy HDMI adapter. More details here.

For those who used the 1st option (a wireless connection to a TV/Monitor) to enable Dex:

1. Use a USB Cable: Connect your Android phone to your PC using a USB cable.

2. Allow USB Debugging on Your Phone: A pop-up will appear on your phone asking to allow USB debugging. Tap OK or Always allow from this computer.

For those who used the 2nd option (an HDMI connection) to Enable Dex:

As you may have figured out if you connect an HDMI cable or an HDMI dummy on your phone, you cannot connect your phone to your computer using a wire.
So what we need to do is connect our phone to the computer with ADB Wireless.
1: We need to install npm on our PC/Mac using this guide

1. We need to install adb-wifi using this command in our Terminal/Powershell on our Mac/PC: npm i adb-wifi -g

2. Once we installed npm and adb-wifi we need to run this command on our Terminal/Powershell: adb-wifi

3. Go to your phone's Settings > Developer Options

4. Enable Wireless Debugging and click on Pair Device with QR Code

5. Scan the QR code on your PC/MAC.

Open Dex to your PC:

We are now in a position to start Dex on our pc

1. Open up a Terminal/Powershell and type: scrcpy --display-id 2

2. Dex should show up on your PC/Mac

Let me know if you have a better way of enabling Dex on a computer in the comments :)