How many times have we spent the Thanksgiving day fixing an uncle’s computer or Christmas Eve getting rid of spyware at some other relatives house. Yes if you are like me you know what i mean. It’s happened but what is worst than being on the phone trying to explain someone how to install Firefox (and explaining why IE is the devil’s lovechild). Well now I’m gonna give you some of my pointers to make this situation easier. This way you can deal with the problem on your time.
Have you ever heard of Remote Desktop? If so you know where I’m going. Now almost nobody besides real technical support uses this feature of Windows, why cause it lacks robustness. There are many solutions better the one i prefer is VNC (“Virtual Network Computing“). What this does is open a windows on your desktop that looks and acts like the other person’s desktop…Wait…no it IS the other person’s desktop…Nice.
This beats virtually everything, remembering all the steps while on the phone is no thrill.
My choice is UVNC and with it the silent installer this makes it very easy. Just give them the executable with all the settings already preset and voila it will install without much user interaction. Now all you need is their IP (Refer to External IP Post), tell them to run the External IP Finder and give you their address, Log on and tell them to watch while you do it. This is a time and a life saver in many instances so give it a look, you won’t regret it.
Some other alternatives: RealVNC, TightVNC, there are also Linux and MAC Distribution, for more refer to Wikipedia’s Comparison Chart.
Abe Diaz 