What might you find on this page? You will find information about Remote Desktop tools or Shared Screen.

What is a Remote Desktop Tool? It is software that allows a person at a remote location to “see and control” your computer. “See” means they can see what is on the screen and disk of another computer. “Control” means they can operate your computer from their remote location. Remote Desktop may not require a user on the remote desktop to authorize remote control.

What is Shared Screen. Shared screen implies the user of a computer authorizes another computer/user to view and/or control what that user is doing with their computer.

Remote support can be a controversial subject. Why? For years, unscrupulous people have used Remote Support tools to swindle poorly educated computer users. Using remote support tools requires the client/customer, be fully aware of how they can control (enable or disable) remote support activity.

As is usually the case, wikipedia contains a page that is titled “Comparison of Remote Desktop Software”. Wow!! There is a lot of software history on that page. The “interesting to me” columns in the tables of software are “Free for personal use”, “Free for commercial use”, and “License”. Free to use, is good, as is an an open source license (GPL). Why GPL? Because it implies a lot of “software engineering eyes” have been involved in trying to make sure the software is a safe as it needs to be, and the software is “open source”, which means you can also look at the source code.

Internet opinions about Remote Desktop. Here are some semi-recent items about Remote Desktop and/or screen sharing.

What about FreeConferenceCall.com?

Zoom.com offers software that represents another branch in the evolution of remote support software. Remote Desktop is a feature of the Zoom.com product as is video conferencing. Combining video conferencing and remote desktop capabilities, in one product, is good marketing.