Looking for a secure, convenient way to control your Windows desktop from anywhere? Sure, who isn’t.
The best way I have found to do this is through LogMeIn. This site allows you to install a small piece of software on your machine and then connect to it later through a web browser. It’s particularly powerful teamed up with Mozilla Firefox because it uses an extension to drastically improve the connection and control of the machine. That still relies on you having Administrator privileges over the machine, or at least being able to install an Add On. If you don’t have that ability or use a different browser, you can still connect to your machine through LogMeIn’s javascript interface or, for slow connections, a screenshot version where you click somewhere and the page translates your click and refreshes the screenshot to reflect the change after your click or typing.
I have found this to be an indispensable tool when it comes down to tech support. Like it or not, if it’s known that you work with computers for a living, friends and family will come crawling no matter what, no matter when. I use LogMeIn and have it set up on my two desktops at home and my laptop. I also have it set up on my parents’ computer and laptop and my sister’s computer. When they have problems and they call me up and start trying to describe what they’re experiencing or seeing, I can just tell them to give me two minutes, log into their machine and have a look for myself. Of course, this doesn’t work in the instances where the problem is network-related, but I’m yet to find a solution that will let you solve network problems over the network without a network connection…
LogMeIn is pretty versatile. I have used it connecting from and to machines on dial-up and it makes the process as painless as possible. It’s also pretty good about dealing with different resolutions and screen sizes. I can go from my 22″ widescreen with 1680×1050 resolution to my parent’s 14″ 1024×768 monitor (and vice versa) without any real issue. You can either zoom out or pan around the screen to navigate without issue.
Just another tool to add to the toolbox:
www.logmein.com