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Comment by Timpy | Hacker News Reader

Back in the Windows 7 days I installed Skype on my parents computer before moving abroad, their user experience was basically like receiving a phone call. Even though they weren't tech savvy we never had any issues. I would call them, and if they were home and near the computer, they could answer it and we'd be video chatting.

A year or so ago I found this to be impossible, there was no application for desktop that was as simple as receiving a phone call. My father has no smart phone. I sent him a zoom link via email but he couldn't log on to the family computer without getting blasted with UI updates, terms of service changes, "Do you want to use OneDrive?", "Here's what's new in Chrome", "Try asking Copilot anything!", etc. From his perspective the computer never worked the same way twice. I wish we had regulations that prevented buying out competition.

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On a related note, a bit over a decade ago I had installed logmein on my parents' computer to be able to easily help them with any IT issues. But they since pivoted away from personal accounts and I never found anything else as straightforward. I feel that in a lot of ways tech has regressed.

EDIT: I just found that logmein actually offer a personal product again, named GoToMyPC, but what used to be entirely free at the time, is now priced at $35/month.

[0] https://get.gotomypc.com/plansandpricing#feature-list

Have you tried AnyDesk? It’s free for personal use and I think does what you’re looking for.

I use TeamViewer for remote support

If you have a decent connection I find just using Windows Remote Desktop (RDP) over VPN (Tailscale) works really well.

The value prop for the proprietary services like TeamViewer for me is they work much better over poor connections and cross platform. (Are there any decent RDP servers for Mac/Linux? In any case it’s another thing to have to install.)

Windows has a built in app for remote servicing called QuickAssist. Works perfect, no need to install anything.

> I just found that logmein actually offer a personal product again, named GoToMyPC

I 'member this being advertized on TechTV back in The Day. It's interesting to see the focus on PDAs now that the product category is entirely dead: https://web.archive.org/web/20031209031959/http://www.techtv...

…but didn't realize it's quite as old as it is (1998) and had never heard of “ExpertCity”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoToMyPC

> It's interesting to see the focus on PDAs now that the product category is entirely dead:

In the context of screen sharing, I guess smartphones are the evolution of what they meant by "Pocket PC". Sure, the mobile remote desktop use-case is a little niche, but the product class isn't dead, it was just reinvented.

I see them as fundamentally different because PDAs mostly didn't have network connectivity at all, while modern phones are connectivity-first and gained functionality from there. It was novel to have a PDA with a modem that did anything, much less provide connectivity back to one's home computer.

That's a fundamental difference in their history, but not in what they turned into. Especially, again, in the context of screen sharing-- a PDA would've needed to have networking in order to run GoToMyPC. It's "device in your pocket that lets you control a bigger computer with remote desktop" either way.

Try RustDesk instead of a bunch of proprietary alternatives suggested by other posters. It uses H.264/H.265/VP9 depending on your hardware and network, and is very fast. It also lets you set up your own server, leaking no information to third parties, but that's optional.

I know this is about Windows, but just in case any Mac users don't know, there's a default app called Screen Sharing (in Applications > Utilities) that lets you dial into any other Mac user's computer if you have their iCloud username, allowing you to both see and control their screen. It doesn't work 100% of the time - sometimes it requires a tweak on a wifi router on the other end - but it's saved me countless hours on unproductive phone calls while helping my mother with tech issues on her iMac.

It hasn’t regressed really, it’s just no longer free. Microsoft quick assist exist and allows you to connect to any pc with the users client code.

Windows actually has a built-in remote assistance tool now called Quick Assist. It provides a simple way to remotely control another Windows machine with user consent, without requiring third-party software. It's preinstalled on Windows 10 and 11—just launch 'Quick Assist' from the Start menu, generate a session code, and connect. While it's not as feature-rich as a full remote desktop solution, it's more than enough for parental IT support.

Starting with Windows 10 this functionality was bundled with the OS

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/solve-pc-problem...

I installed wireguard and just use remote desktop

I think Chrome Remote Desktop works pretty well. It's easy enough to configure for use and put a link to the host page in the browser toolbar. I might setup RustDesk if I get the time, it was in a state of flux last time I looked at it, but it seems to be more solid now.

Do they not want to use a smartphone?

FaceTime is about as seamless an experience as you can get, and it's basically like receiving a phone call because it's indeed a call on a phone!

My grandparents were terrible at smartphones. To them, it's like a landline phone, but you have to charge it every 1-2 days. Yet my grandpa was decent at PC, and email, and so on, as it was in "a place" and easy to drive.

Exactly! This is a trend nowadays. Go to web - they even make apps for it, just to put you to that webpage - then do some or all of [1].

Unusable!

About Skype: Once upon a time I had a phonecall with my then almost 70 retired mother from abroad, who never been a tech-savvy person, to be gentle, saying we should try Skype for its video chat, better sound and its no/low cost. I will install it next time being home. Next day she called me on Skype! She used the link I sent (she is not speaking English btw.), installed, configured, looked me up and called me out of the blue. Did not happen similar before or ever since. Soon, I will have trouble getting through the typical user experience, well, more like not giving an f getting through it.

[1] https://img.ifunny.co/images/5e047ed0fb02df4c206c9d836ed21c8...

And in [1] they missed the "Try closing the 'Disable ad-blocker plugin' pop-up"

Telegram does that and also has a native (as in C++/Qt) desktop client, unlike almost every other messenger.

WhatsApp these days also has native clients for Windows and macOS (UWP and Catalyst, respectively). They don't yet have all the features of the Electron/web client, but are getting there, and at least on macOS, I much prefer the experience.

Also, I wouldn't exactly call Qt native, unless you happen to be on KDE.

I think this is definitely get them an iPad and use FaceTime territory. They seem to be the least invasive in terms of just letting you get on with the task in hand, instead of having to understand what a OneUI update is and what each of the 5 different TOS checklist items means.

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