There are a lot of services and software that will allow you to share your desktop with one or more people so you can have a meeting, show a demonstration and generally share your computer desktop.
All listed are free to use:
- acrobat.com – from Adobe is a good service to share your desktop and have a meeting online with one or more people.
- dimdim.com – from DimDim is free and open source. If you want to run their software on your own server you can do that too.
- skype.com – from Skype now has a remote desktop sharing feature in their popular VoIP software. Download the 4.1 beta version for Windows and the latest version for OS X.
The above options are not the same as remote access to your desktop. The difference between remote sharing and remote access is needing to have someone on the other computer giving you permission to sign on. Where remote access software just runs waiting for you to connect to that computer anytime you want.
With the above options available it is difficult to realize how companies like Webex, FuzeMeeting and GoToMyPC/Meeting/Webinar/Assist stay viable businesses.
I will probably give quick tutorials on how to use the remote sharing features at a later time so check back often.