Single-Click VNC

Hooray, somebody finally cloned the parts of Copilot I wanted so I can use this technology to help family members without either paying for Copilot myself (not going to happen) or asking them to pay (happened a couple times but always felt kind of overpriced).

Lifehacker’s post UltraVNC Singleclick describes how to use it.  It’s a version of the VNC server (which exports the local machine’s screen) packaged up in a no-install EXE which can be pre-configured to connect up to the server the helper runs.

The tutorial talks about emailing the .exe, though. I won’t do that — I’ll post it on my web server and tell them to download it while I’m on the phone with them.

Copilot is much more polished and easier to use but $10 per 24 hours is too much money to aid in the occasional support of the family member with PC woes.