LogMeIn Free

If you use a main desktop PC at work or at home, and also use a laptop, you've likely got problems. Let's say, for example, that you use an e-mail client such as Outlook on your desktop PC, but when you're away from it, you want to check your email. There's nothing you can do; you're out of luck.

LogMeIn Free solves the problem neatly. You can take control any of your computers from any PC or Mac over the Internet, using one of the popular browsers on LogMeIn's supported list. So that means you'll be able to sit at a different computer, controlling your main computer almost as if you were sitting there.

Setup is surprisingly easy. Create an account on the LogMeIn.com Web site, then install the LogMeIn software on the computer you wish to control. Tell the software you want that PC to be able to be controlled over the Internet. Then when you want to take control of it, log into your LogMeIn.com account, and you'll be able to take control of the computer, using either a PC or a Mac. The computer you want to control will have to left on and running LogMeIn Free. For the best performance, install any software that it recommends on the machine on which you're using a browser, such as a Firefox plug-in or a special piece of Mac software. But you don't have to do that--it still works, even without the special software.

You'll now be able to run the remote computer in its own browser window. You may have to fiddle with resolution settings on the machine from which you're connecting when you're connected if the resolution on the machine you're controlling and the one doing the controlling don't match.

There's also a $70 per year version of LogMeIn, LogMeIn Pro2, which has extra features such as remote printing, file-sharing and more. But if you don't need those features, the free version will do the trick.

Note that when you install LogMeIn, it installs as a trial of the Pro version. However, you can easily turn that trial software into the free version. To do so, select Options --> About, click the "Switch Account or Subscriptions" button, and in the Available Subscriptions drop-down menu, select LogMeIn Free.

You can also do nothing, because at the end of the Pro trial period, you will be asked if you want to subscribe to the Pro version. If you don't subscribe, the software will automatically revert to the free version, removing the Pro features but remaining functional.

Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you must register for a free account to download the software.

--Preston Gralla