Need to support your mother-in-law’s computer, your father’s computer, your girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s parents computer?
The best way to support the less-experienced computer users in our lives is by NOT supporting them at all. 😉
When you support your family and friends computer it could turn into a lifetime of free support by you, and lots of frustrating hours for everyone. Also, the moment you finish fixing their computer, you are setting yourself up to get blamed for anything that goes wrong with their computer forever. 🙂 Now we’re having fun.
To make your support job easier, I recommend LogMeIn. LogMeIn is a web-based remote desktop system for PCs and Macs, and it’s free. At least one version of it is. I have found that I can support the folks in my life with the free version just fine.
Here’s their Product/Feature Comparison chart. Pay particular attention to the LogMeIn Free column. 🙂
At each computer you’ll have to install a small piece of software from the LogMeIn website. After that, you’ll be set to remote to each computer you need to support. You can have the software load when the computer reboots so the computer will be ready and waiting for your connection.
[techtags: Free Software, Remote Access, Remote Desktop]
I always use Windows remote assistance, it’s available through messenger which is installed on just about every windows PC. Just click on the actions menu, then request remote assistance and then choose which contact you would like to help you. Fast, easy and reliable.