Arduinna

A few weeks ago, I stumbled over a program called TeamViewer, which gives you remote access to another computer. CNET gives it five stars, or "spectacular".

It's free for non-commercial use, and lets you do all sorts of things. You can use it to control another computer; you can use it to invite people to look at your screen in an online meeting; you can use it to transfer files back and forth without having to first upload them somewhere. The only requirement is that both systems have it installed and are online. (Obviously, faster connections and more modern OSes are going to have better results.)

The default setup gives you a user ID number that stays the same, and generates a random password every time you launch the program. You give that password to whoever you want to have access to your system, then when you end the session, the password is deleted.

You can also set it up to have a permanent password, so anyone can access that computer at any time if they know the user ID and pw. (You can do this during installation, or at any point thereafter by choosing a specific pw for that computer.)

One of the things I wanted it for was to be able to help my dad with small computer problems. I used to be able to walk him through things, but that's harder now, and my default had started to be "okay, write down the entire message and I'll take a look the next time I'm out", which isn't really great for a lot of stuff.

So I installed TeamViewer on his system the last time I was out there, which is when I discovered the permanent-password option, which was a source of great joy for me. I hadn't been looking forward to coaching him through opening the program any time I had to help him.

He called me a few minutes ago to say he had this crazy message on his screen from "A-V-G" about a "trojan horse found", and said "That doesn't have anything to do with me, right? I can just blow that off?"

And I said, "You know what? Let me try that thing I showed you..."

Opened up my laptop, opened up TeamViewer, opened up the list of "my computers" and clicked on his computer where I'd added it and its permanent password, and boom, there was his screen on my laptop, with the AVG threat-detection screen. Instead of having to listen to him read every word on the screen trying to get him to the "remove to vault" option, I just clicked it, and now am running a scan on his system from my living room, while he's off mailing a check.

If he didn't have a permanent password, I'd have asked him to launch TeamViewer and read me his numbers, so I could plug them in to my connection screen.

The remote-controlled computer has full functionality the whole time: if you need someone to show you what steps they took, they can do so while you watch. There's a little bubble in the lower-right hand corner of the remote-controlled screen so they know someone's there, with tools (toggle control permission off/on, chat window, etc.).

The session can be ended from either side. Once the session ends, a notice pops up on both computers that this was a free session, asking you to "like" it on Facebook/G-plus, giving an option to buy a license, or clicking "okay". This is a little annoying on the one hand, but clicking okay takes care of it, and the message means no one can sneak onto your system without your being aware that someone has done so.

I highly recommend this if you do tech support for anyone, or want to do any sort of remote collaboration. Or even if you want to do things like control the media player on your desktop from your laptop in the other room...

There are even mobile versions for iOS, Android, and Windows 8/RT.

Download it from the TeamViewer site instead of CNET, though, to avoid CNET's annoying third-party add-on crap.