Win 10 remote desktop. Suggestions?

[Brad Johnson]

I'm upgrading Mom's laptop to Win 10 this weekend. In an attempt to restore universal harmony and make my life a bajillion percent easier I'm going to set it up for remote desktop. Win 10 has native remote desktop capability but that requires setting it upwith a password protected local login. Mom's technical capabilities a pushed to the limit just powering it up so I'd like to not add to the frustration.

Preferred setup would be an anytime/anywhere remote capability, but only if I can make it transparent to her day-to-day operation. Short of that I could live with her being able to grant click-one-button access while sitting at the computer, using a home screen icon.

I don't care about complexity on my end but her end needs to be simple, simple, simple. Nothing harder than a single, obvious button/icon if at all possible. Mom's technical inabilities are the stuff of legend. Her usual response to anything more complex than a wooden spoon is to give up and walk away (inevitably adding an hour or so to an already frustrating long-distance Mom Tech Support call on my part).

Suggestions? Thoughts? Bueller...?

Brad

[BryanP]

TeamViewer.  Free for personal use. 

[Brad Johnson]

If I'm seeing it correctly it appears I can set her up with a desktop icon to launch the TeamViewer runtime app. All she'd have to do is click the icon and read me the address and password. Is it really that simple?

Brad

[charby]

If I'm seeing it correctly it appears I can set her up with a desktop icon to launch the TeamViewer runtime app. All she'd have to do is click the icon and read me the address and password. Is it really that simple?

Brad

Yes, but convince your mom to use a safe word between the two of you before she gives you the code. I've had to deal with the aftermath of people being convinced by unsolicited phone calls saying their computer is damaged/compromised and to use to teamviewer to let them in.

[lee n. field]

TeamViewer.  Free for personal use. 

Yep, assuming it works with 10.

All she'd have to do is click the icon and read me the address and password. Is it really that simple?

You can set it up with a set password.  Keep note of the address.

[Marnoot]

If you create a Teamviewer account (free), and set it up on her machine for "unattended" access, you can just link it to your account and you'll be able to log in without her needing do anything or give you any codes.

[Brad Johnson]

If you create a Teamviewer account (free), and set it up on her machine for "unattended" access, you can just link it to your account and you'll be able to log in without her needing do anything or give you any codes.

Tempting, but there's a hitch...

She freaks about any type of "setting up an account". Her concern is irrational and unfounded, born of her inability to comprehend technology in general, but that's that and there's no getting around it. I'd rather not go there if at all possible.

Mom is bad about walking off and leaving everything running. Usually Facebook and her Yahoo mail page. She is convinced that closing the cover shuts off the machine even after repeated reminders that it's only going into hibernation. I'm thinking about setting it up so thay closing the screen forces a full shutdown if, for no other reason, basic system housekeeping. Is there a simple way to make that work with unattended login?

Brad

[Brad Johnson]

Well whaddaya know... It not only works on 10, it also works cross-platform! I'm typing this on my android phone via a Teamviewer link to my home desktop. Nice!

Edit to add:
I think I'll set it up so she manually clicks the icon then reads off the login information to me. She weirds out if anything is happening in the background without her knowing. Her sitting there looking at the thing as the login occurs will calm things significantly. It's been months of begging and explaining to get her to agree to this. Anything I can do to settle her nerves will be a plus.

Brad

[BryanP]

Well whaddaya know... It not only works on 10, it also works cross-platform! I'm typing this on my android phone via a Teamviewer link to my home desktop. Nice!

Yep.  I've used my android phone and my ipad to connect to my other computers running TeamViewer.

There's also a PortableApps install.  I keep a copy of it in the PortableApps environment I carry around on a USB stick.

[Phantom Warrior]

I'm late to the party but another vote for TeamViewer.  We used it in normal mode before we got our current solution* and still use it for unattended access to machines we monitor remotely.  Very handy and easy to use for both parties.

*A dedicated device that lets you establish remote sessions without installing any software is one of the few things that beats out TeamViewer.

[HeroHog]

I use Splashtop and can get to my computers from anywhere across the Internet by subscribing to Anywhere Access Pack for $16.99 per year. It also works from my iPhone 5. On my intranet I use either Splashtop or TightVNC. TightVNC works on *NIX and Windows equally well.

[Brad Johnson]

Success!!

Both Mom ane Dad's machine set up and running like clockwork. Mom is beside-herself happy.

But.....

She hands me her cell phone and says "What's this?", pointing to the voicemail icon. She swore up and down she'd never set up voicemail. When I called her number and let her hear her voice making the announcement she proclaimed that is wans't her ans someone must have "computer hackered" it and made it sound like her. After an hour or so I figure out the password, a variant of her usual.

Then she hit me with "I signed up for the Lock Lifer and they won't talk to me!" Apparently she signed up for LifeLock without bothering to write down anything. Then she called them without any passwords, etc. and they locked the account.

It's gonna be a long weekend...

Brad