6 free remote desktop sharing and screen sharing solutions

Posted on October 23, 2007 at 9:48 am

Make sure to read other posts from the Free Collaboration Tools series!

6 free remote desktop sharing and screen sharing solutions
Yakkle- Free online collaboration tool
37signals.com – Project management, collaboration, and CRM tools

Working in IT for 5 years, I’ve learned that desktop sharing/screen sharing software applications make life a lot easier for both the users and for the Administrators. It’s not only a great way to supply technical support to users, but it’s also a fabulous way to share data and collaborate with others remotely quickly and easily.

I’ve been using remote desktop sharing software for a while now and it’s worked wonders for our team. Multiple people in different locations around the country can work on a presentation or a project plan simultaneously from their desktop computers! Here’s a list of a couple of my favorite screen sharing software over the last few years:

Probably my favorite because of it’s ease of use and the fact that you can use it to remotely access your PC or MAC also! Yuuguu is completely free and allows you to instantly share your screen with anyone. Works well through firewalls also and on MACs.

CroosLoop is also very easy to use, but requires that each party install the CrossLoop software onto their computers. Uses 128-bit encryption and allows for file-sharing also.

Another popular service for remote desktop sharing. Easily access remote PC’s by installing a client software onto each machine. Good for remote PC trouble-shooting, etc.

A good free tool for online collaboration, desktop sharing, and remote PC access. No registration required, no logins, very easy to use. Uses SSH to make connections to other PC’s.

SkyFex allows remote watching and remote control in real time. Does not require additional software installation and works transparently through NAT and Firewalls. Only for IE though.

TeamViewer has a couple of features, such as remote control of PCs, screen sharing, file transfer, chat ability, and is secure. Have to install the TeamViewer software for it to work.

A free software that lets others watch your screen in real time. No need to install any software, which is a plus. Works with Windows, Mac and Linux.

You can use all of the applications for all kind of activities, such as boardroom presentations, group lectures, remote PowerPoint presentations, computer helpdesk, whiteboard for telephone conferences, etc.

If you know of one that I missed or think is better, post a comment! Enjoy!

[tags]remote desktop sharing, screen sharing, desktop sharing, screen share, share desktop[/tags]

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Comments

71 Responses to “6 free remote desktop sharing and screen sharing solutions”

ram said on : October 23rd, 2007 at 4:21 pm

i used showmypc its a good one, i haven’t tested other ones

Nelson said on : October 23rd, 2007 at 6:30 pm

a very good list of remote desktop software, as a computer techie myself I have used most of them and all of them work great..I never have tried team viewer though, is the first time I hear about it too, I will give it a try one of these days.

thanks for the info.

Nirmal said on : October 24th, 2007 at 4:07 am

Nice list, but I havent used any one other that Show my PC.

Madhur Kapoor said on : October 24th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

Nice list buddy . I havent used any of them so far but now i will.

Richard said on : October 25th, 2007 at 6:24 am

I use Gooer Remote Desktop Service and it works fine on my mobile phone and laptop. I am wondering if any of them support iPhone?

Luc Archambault said on : November 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 am

I use Crossloop and It works Perfect for Me.

Cameron said on : November 5th, 2007 at 1:29 pm

Also check out SharedView from Microsoft at sharedview.com(disclosure: I work on the team). It’s lightweight and free, it’s very easy to start or join, and stays out of your way at the top of your screen. If you try it, please post feedback from the Help menu as we’re interested in constantly improving it to meet your needs.

Ben said on : December 13th, 2007 at 9:13 am

Looking for a software that can perform the below:
When 3 peoples connect to my desktop, I can see 3 mouse pointer and plus my mouse is total 4 mouse pointer. Each user’s mouse pointer (besides your own) is labelled with that user’s name or colored mouse. Everyone can move their own pointer independently from the others.

Collaborative VNC (currently for Unix only) is the best choise but it is for Unix only.

I am using Windows XP

Pls help

raj said on : December 14th, 2007 at 9:37 am

hi , i was wondering can anybody will help me out !!! i try to connect with remote desktop, and also with vnc..it working fine in my home form my labtop toanother labtop. and also to desktop in my house but recetnly my parents brought a desktop backhome in india and also have an internt connection throught hathway cable. after trying for 2 days i still cannot login to remte desktop any suggesstion ideas greatly helpful
raj

Rich Baker said on : February 5th, 2008 at 11:11 am

For super-simple web demos and presentations to as many as 100 guests at a time, you might consider Glance, at http://glance.net. (I’m the CEO/Founder).

Glance lets you show anything on your PC or Mac screen. Your guests connect from any PC/Mac/Linux computer, using their favorite browser.

Glance is built for business users who need a screen sharing service that’s as reliable as their phone. It is a flat rate subscription service (not free), but you can grab a free trial anytime.

Pero said on : February 25th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

I use Crossloop and It works Perfect

Eric Schott said on : March 9th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

In one click, I’m sharing my desktop with any of my IM contacts. With one more click, I can give them mouse/keyboard control on my pc. I use Yakkle.

Ray Ellis said on : March 15th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

The shraring applications I’m familiar with allow one computer to be shared or viewed by others. Are there applications that allow each participants screen to be shared with each of the other participants?

I’m looking for something like a visual chat room but would also allow voice over IP. I’d like to have a virtual conference with four other people, each with a laptop hooked into the internet. We should each be able to talk and share each of our screens with each other. Ideally, each participant would have an iconic view of each of the other screens and could expand them with a click.

Is an application like this available?

Thanks.
Ray

akishore said on : March 15th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

Ray, if you want an application where anyone in the group can share out their screen at any time, then you’ll need to use a program like WebEX, however it’s not free and only one person can be sharing at a time (obviously).

Eric Schott said on : March 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Ray,

You need to try Yakkle. It has conferencing and built in voice over ip. Each participant in the meeting can share their own desktop and view each others desktops. Basically, when you join the meeting you bring your IM, Voice and Desktop with you.

As an example, let’s say you, me and Bob are conferencing together. We each have three tabs in the Yakkle UI, one for each of our desktops. You can jump to any desktop you want at any time, so you can look at me, while I’m looking at Bobs etc. You also can give and take away mouse/keyboard control to any of the participants.

Ray Ellis said on : March 16th, 2008 at 12:02 am

akishore and Eric,

Thank you for the advice. I’ll check out Yakkle for sure. WebEX is a bit expensive for my use, I expect.

Steve Victor said on : May 19th, 2008 at 4:57 am

Hi

I have used Showmypc and find it very good. Is there a free application that also has a “reboot and reconnect” feature?

I know that there are commercial programmes that support this, but not sure about free ones?

salam said on : May 21st, 2008 at 11:09 am

I used TeamViewer and I found it quite working and very enjoyable and easy to use. Me and my friends have praised it too much and v r now gathered anytime we want…..we play together….

Sandeep said on : May 21st, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Hi,

Try http://www.dimdim.com, it’s also a good one !! Doesn’t need any installation except a plugin which is hardly of 900 Kb.

Thanks,
Sandeep

Mohammad Elyas khan said on : June 10th, 2008 at 4:51 am

I’m using windows xp Professional and One Linux (Debian 4.0) Gateway. I want access all fill and hardware control from Windows Xp. please help details.

hottautau said on : August 23rd, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Hi

Anyone have the ShowMyPC free service software?
It’s now closed for download..

http://showmypc.com/service/

Can you send it to me by email on my hotmail?
Tanks in advance

jerry S. said on : August 26th, 2008 at 7:39 pm

thankyou, im downloading Yuuguu (US = Free) ty

Lutz said on : September 7th, 2008 at 4:39 am

Hi there.

Yesterday, I came cross DESKTRA freedom destop on download.com.

I have installed and tested the software. It’s totaly free, simple to use, really fast and remote Desktop screen color looks just fantastic. You don’t have to worry about the firewall settings, etc.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

http://www.desktra.com/freedom

FYI, no file share.

Cheers,
Lutz

Randy said on : September 16th, 2008 at 11:00 am

Thanks for the legwork in collecting options.

I use LogMeIn for remote PC support and it is a lifesaver, even with just the free version.

I am now looking for client viewing of my laptop demos, without their needing to install software. Since I prefer Linux, I’m definitely going to try Yuuguu, since they seem to have the strongest Linux support (Distribution-specific install files).

Thanks again.

fajr said on : January 7th, 2009 at 3:35 am

Thanks for the application, i need it for my college task.

Andrew Donnelly said on : January 13th, 2009 at 10:54 am

Hi,
I’d just like to suggest Mikogo, a free desktop sharing tool ideal not only for remote support, but also online meetings and presentations as it allows you to share your screen with multiple people simultaneously. Many features included such as switch presenter, recording, file transfer, remote keyboard/mouse control, and more.
Very easy to get started and use – just a couple of mouse clicks to start a meeting and no configurations required.
Available for free from our website http://www.mikogo.com

Kind regards,

Andrew
The Mikogo Team

Zografito said on : January 31st, 2009 at 5:51 pm

Hey guys i use Mikogo and teamviewer as desktop sharing programs. I wonder if you can tell me which is the fastest possible desktop sharing program. I mean with minimum delay in the screen sharing – it should be less than 1-2 seconds.

Dave said on : February 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 am

Hi all,

Thanks for the reviews and recommendations!

Just a quick comment here as a reply to Steve Victor but also FYI to everyone:
If you need to reboot the computer you’re remotely logged into, usually the option to ShutDown/Restart isn’t available. However, from a command prompt (on Windows systems) you can run the command:
SHUTDOWN -R
and that will reboot the remote computer. It also throws a 30 second delay to warn anyone who’s online at the time, so that they can quickly save their work, but you can remove the delay by throwing the tag -T 0 (or some other number) in there, giving you:
SHUTDOWN -R -T 0
and that will immediately reboot the PC.

Just a quick tip from the admin side of things.

RaphaelDDL said on : February 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

another good one is http://www.dimdim.com

btw
thx for this list

screensharing said on : February 25th, 2009 at 12:00 pm

has anyone tried live livelook.com?

Andre said on : February 26th, 2009 at 7:39 am

VNC is the smaller app for this purpose.

Highlander said on : March 8th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

I was previously using Goto Assist Express Beta. The Beta just ended and my company will not pay. It seems to be ideal as it allows multiple PC sessions and it does allow you to reboot the computer you are viewering. I tried Teamviewer and it is very user friendly with minimal amount of software and user instruction. The only problem I found with Teamviewer is that it isn’t really free. After a few sessions they will give a warning and say Commercial Use detected and limit you to 5 minutes. I am going to try and get Goto Assist if I can get the suits in my company who don’t do support to sign off. In the meantime I will try showmypc. My main consideration in using this is security as I work in healthcare Go Assist Teamviewer address those concerns. Show My PC seems to as well but I am a bit suspect of open source.

John said on : March 22nd, 2009 at 10:53 am

Hi

I need to share my screen only, no remote access. I need to see my screen in a preview and a screen of my client too.

The two screens can not disappear as I use another program, I want to teach online and these functions need to be I follow the development of my student, The screens need to remain always visible.
Someone suggests something?

Joe said on : March 23rd, 2009 at 9:51 am

Well I was just using Teamviewer the other day and thought it was fantastic. I have just now learnt that there are more such softwares. Have got to give each one of them a try. Thanks for the list. Really helpful.

Vadim said on : April 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm

These programs that you have listed work just fine for personal sharing, however if you want something really powerful and enterprise-ready I would recommend ProxyNetworks. They offer remote access PC software that allows managers to communicate with their employees which is really useful for people that globetrot like me. If I need to troubleshoot something with my team or reach files from anywhere in my company, I would be lost without this. Check them out, I speak from experience.

Omi Azad said on : April 4th, 2009 at 11:02 am

Very useful post.

Roger H said on : May 1st, 2009 at 9:37 am

Techinline.com looks and works a lot like skyfex.com. The one advantage to techinline, you can buy a block of sessions instead of a monthly fee.

WPeterson said on : May 8th, 2009 at 9:08 am

I found vyew.com. It is a great, free, easy to use, desktop sharing and collaboration site. No client install necessary. It allows multiple people to contribute in the same session. This is going to be my new freinds & family support tool to resolve PC distress.

John said on : June 10th, 2009 at 8:43 am

You have to check out http://www.oneeko.com. It is by far the easiest product on the market.

Tux said on : July 27th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Thanks very much for the list. I’ve been looking for some free products that would give me access to my home computer from anywhere in the world. Your listings could come in very useful.

Thanks again!

meatdonut said on : August 4th, 2009 at 7:24 pm

I am looking for a program that will allow me not only share my screen, but audio that is playing with the program(movie/DVD) in real time. I am away from home and IM with my wife. SKYPE offeres the screen sharing, but I haven’t figured out how to share the audio except from and external mic which degrades quality.
Thanks, Meat

Babu said on : August 6th, 2009 at 8:56 am

Really good collection of desktop sharing softwares and good comments explored more softwares. Thanks Everyone.

igor said on : August 8th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

Hi I have a trading group all around the world. Iam looking for a solution for us. We currently use Paltalk and gotowebinar.

Our needs

* Chat
* Voice Chat over internet using microphones plugged in the PC.
* Ability to share desktop (view only or allow remote), others can share their desktop as well
* we have an average of 35 people in the room. and we are growing daily.

Anyone have any ideas?

Ben said on : September 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 pm

I’m looking for something so that I can play games with friends as if we were playing online. I’ve done this before, but it was with a Mac. Any ideas of how I could play “online” with Windows xp using the computer’s wireless ability?

vinita said on : September 13th, 2009 at 2:57 am

I want to show my desktop to two of my friends at the same time. I know using most of the desktop sharing tools I can only share it with one person. Plese do help if you know about any free software for this. Can it be done by team viewer?

Cybele said on : September 22nd, 2009 at 3:04 pm

You may wish to try out our SupportSmith TeamUp! Lite.
This is a FREE small tool for desktop and application sharing.

It allows you to work with any other TeamUp! Lite user sharing a single application or the whole desktop in just three steps:

1. Select item to share.
2. Enter peer Domain\Name.
3. Send invitation to share.

We would love to hear from you. Your feedback would be really appreciated.
Best regards!

Cybele Software Team
cybelesoft.com
supportsmith.com

andy said on : October 1st, 2009 at 8:21 am

Well i’m at school a lot and I have to do most of my work on the pc. I have problems getting to sites for informational purposes. I need something that i can install on my home PC and access it through its IP or something from school. But there’s a catch, I cant download anything on the school computers. So is there anything without downloading?

Shehan said on : October 6th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

I used Team Viewer but unfortunately it didn’t display the colors of the photos on the other screen properly! I think this post will help me a lot>> Already downloaded LogMeIn and yakkle>> Gonna try both>>> If any one knows a good software just to watch each others screens with high quality please let me know>>

Seamus said on : October 16th, 2009 at 4:32 am

Hi, I am looking for a free application for classroom use, I wish to share the contents of my screen with all 21 clients on the network and also restrict all use while demonstration is in progress. Thanks for your suggestions.

Amir said on : October 21st, 2009 at 12:50 am

Im using Team Viewer but im wondering why i cant watch a movie on the remote computer? I only see the blank screen on my computer. Is there any software that will allow me to watch video on remote computer?

Please advise. Thank You

Devlyn said on : October 23rd, 2009 at 3:00 am

Hi
I’m looking for Remote Desktop Access software that is free. That allows me to connect from my laptop(Windows XP) to my server(Linux, Ubuntu)., over a LAN or WAN. So that I can use, the software to, maintains my server, as it doesn’t have a keyboard, mouse, or screen.
I’m using NXFree, and it works well. Here is the address for those who want to try it:

http://www.nomachine.com

you have to download the Server, and client.

But the free version only allows the first two user account on the server to have remote accesses to. And I would like the option to allow remote access to all my users’ accounts, on my server.

So if anyone can help me that would be great, thanks.

bj said on : October 29th, 2009 at 8:10 am

in response to Seamus. For classroom use I use http://www.classroomspy.com/ (commercial, easy to setup) or http://italc.sourceforge.net/ (free opensource, works but harder to configure).

-bj

SANJEEV said on : November 4th, 2009 at 12:47 am

TEAMVIEWER IS THE BEST! TeamViewer is no 1

The I-Fort said on : November 12th, 2009 at 6:02 am

Can I remotely connect to another computer without software?

Chris said on : November 17th, 2009 at 7:21 pm

For me, the best and fastest free remote desktop sharing is Teamviewer w/ file transfer which is also very fast. Almost most of free remote software i used daily for support but the most effective one is Teamviewer. Cheers.

Henry said on : November 30th, 2009 at 12:53 am

hamachi (pro) was great until acquired by the logmein ‘people’… whoa who can say bloatware?

While not an exact match I have been keeping an eye on Social VPN

http://socialvpn.wordpress.com/

Zack said on : November 30th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

Do any of these work just on a LAN? My internet connection isn’t the fastest, and I don’t want to have to go over the internet just to connect to another pc that is in another room. Thanks

Fred said on : December 1st, 2009 at 1:26 pm

SupportSmith TeamUp! works within your LAN or over internet. Is has PRO (and paid) version, but it offers FREE peer to peer desktop and app sharing. You can visit supportsmith.com to check it out.

ted weber said on : December 21st, 2009 at 3:08 pm

I know there are many remote access choices out there, including Proxy Networks, TechInLine and CrossLoop, all of which have versions which are free with multiple security layers, user-friendly interfaces, and are lightweight on hard drives. Many are super simple to set up, and some, like Proxy, don’t require installation. Others include a mobile component, which isn’t good for day-to-day work (lots of scrolling), but can be a lifesaver in a pinch. The good thing about them is that there are a lot of choices (also check out Hamanchi and LogMeIn) that you gave use for free and try them out.

Arman said on : January 2nd, 2010 at 3:13 pm

Hi there,

I guess the best solution for co browsing is livelook I’ve tried it for several times, no downloads required, you can check it here.

LiveLook.com
Showscreen.com

keanu said on : January 23rd, 2010 at 3:01 am

Teamviewer is great but how do I watch videos on a remote machine? please reply….

Shary said on : February 1st, 2010 at 2:25 pm

Well there is also cspace.in which works well in windows and is good to setup remote access. You have to download and install it, it does not need a person on the other machine to approve connections. Access is kind of slow sometimes, but it helps with maintaining servers.

Salle said on : February 4th, 2010 at 11:10 am

Thanks much!! I have been looking for a free way to share my desktop with clients for WAY TOO LONG! Now I have 6 to chose from. I will check back and post my fave.

Joe

Alex said on : February 6th, 2010 at 1:40 pm

The ONLY tool that allows sharing and watching (local) VIDEO with friends over the Internet is SeeToo.

- No uploading!
- Completely in sync!
- Any file size and format.

Try at seetoo.com/lite.

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