Some office IT utilities make the transition to home use without skipping a beat. A staple of home PCs since the era of modems and MS-DOS, remote desktop control programs allow a user to take direct control over a system without being physically present. Given the mission-critical nature they often fill in a workplace, and the length of time they've been around, it's not a surprise that many of these suites are robust, stable, and capable of performing just about any computer task you care to conjure. Remote Utilities has been a player in this market for years, with their first release in 2004 of Remote Office Manager. Since then the feature list has grown considerably, but the biggest change came with the release of 5.2; the current version is now free for personal use. That's quite a perk, given the $30 cover charge for entry otherwise.

Over a dozen features are supported in the personal version of Remote Utilities 5.2.2, including all the relevant ones from the complete commercial package. Full desktop control, file transfer, chat and even videocam support are all on board along with extras such as a task manager, remote code execution capability and a terminal. Only IT-centered functions such as inventory analysis, built-in mediation servers and automatic integration into an active directory environment are gone from the free version, omissions not likely missed for home use. Moreover, configuration is straightforward and the Internet ID feature allows connections without opening firewall ports or entering IP addresses, although connection via those more standard means is fully supported as well.

Another issue is Remote Utilities Free Edition's all-or-nothing approach to screen sharing. While an entire desktop or monitor display can be shared, there's no way to share just a portion of the screen or the single window of an application. This limits some of the potential of the package as a teaching/demonstration tool, but is admittedly a fairly minor quibble.

Despite this, Remote Utilities Free Edition is an easy choice for Windows-centric home networks. The price can't be beat, and the feature list is more than enough to satisfy even power users. If you do Windows, this one is worth a closer look.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you must register to download the latest version of the software and follow the installation instructions for the free version.

—Jim Norris