You’re all set up in your hotel room to review the presentation you’ll be giving tomorrow, but when you go looking for the slides you created, you realize the file is back on your office computer. Or, maybe you simply need to take control of a computer back at the office to demonstrate a task to a person there. These kinds of situations are why it makes sense to travel with a good remote control software application. The good news is that whether you’re a Windows or a Mac user, you can do so for free.
Remote control software used to be too much of a hassle to set up for most people, but some of the best free applications no longer require any significant setup at all, because they’re browser-based. In this post, I’ll go through good, free–as well as some inexpensively priced–remote control applications for Windows and the Mac.
Whether you are a Windows or Mac user, LogMeIn Free is one of the very best remote control software applications. I use it regularly, and never have any problems. It costs absolutely nothing and you can easily specify multiple remote computers to connect to. Mac users can try LogMeIn Free for Mac, although do note that it is a preview application.
You can get all set up to use LogMeIn Free in under two minutes. You just specify an e-mail address and a password, then respond to an “Add Computer” prompt to add systems that you want to remotely connect to. When you’re traveling, all you have to do is login at LogMeIn’s home page and the remote computers that you specified upon setup are immediately available to you. If you’ve never used a remote conrol application before, you can literally control the remote computer as though you were sitting in front of it, moving files from it to your local hard drive, etc.

What if you’re a Mac user and you want to control a remote Windows PC? Microsoft has a beta version of its Remote Desktop Connection software and it’s a completely free download.
If you become a fan of remote control software and want to branch out into a few more advanced features, look into GoToMyPC and WebEx PCNow. Mac users who want extra features such as the ability to set Adminstrator rights for remote access should look into Apple Remote Desktop or Timbuktu Pro.
Do you have any good tips on remote control applications?
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2007\/08\/20\/control-a-remote-computer-for-free\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_f27551c38a1f4f7cd81237550a7bf723","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}