Can I remotely connect to my Dad's laptop to help him out?

Hello all,
I am trying to help my Dad out with his new computer but - he lives in Pennsylvania and I live in Texas. Now, dear Dad is 70+ years and, as you can imagine it is kind of hard to do over the phone.
What I am interested in doing, if it is possible, is remotely grabbing control of his computer from mine and moving his mouse around and clicking on the things that need done while he watches.
We are both running Windows 8.1. He has an HP desktop and I have an HP laptop.
Is there any way of doing such a thing, and, if so, how would one do it?
Is it hard to do?
Do we need to install additional software?
If anyone can assist in this problem, it would be greatly appreciated! I love Dad but, as you can imagine, this is proving to be a little more stressful than I thought it would be Oh, and poor Dad made a jump from Windows XP to 8.1, so he's really stressed.

Thanks in advance and if you need to know any further computer details for either mine or Dad's, please let me know and I shall try to get what info is needed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I would use TeamViewer.

You both need to have it installed and your dad has to give you the access code and you can take over his computer

Sven

RE: Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestion. Is it hard to use? Any suggestions on using it? As you can tell, I've never used such a program before so I'm a little hesitant but hey, I'm willing to try anything at this point

Very simple to use.
You both download it and install it. Your dad has to give you his ID and Password.
On your side you type in the ID and click on “ remote control”
Then click on connect to partner. After the connection is done, it will ask you for the password and after that you have control of his computer.
I just did the same thing, I set up outlook by remote control so the people in our office can get the E-Mail. And I also tested it.
It is like you are in front of your dads computer

Sven

PS. to find it, just Google it

Awesome! I shall be attempting this tomorrow evening once I get home from work. Thanks so much!!!

no problem
have fun

Sven

Ok,
the GREAT news is that Team Viewer has been totally awesome in helping dad!

The bad news is - Dad was having problems getting his e-mail account set up - he has Century link. Their customer service rep worked with Dad for hours to get things finally right and in the process discovered that dad had some Trojans already on his new computer.

The good news is that the fellow stayed with Dad on the phone and installed some wonderful products and worked with him until he got clean scans.

Which made me think about my computer and this morning, I've finally had time to start in on that.

Should I start a new thread or should I just continue here? I don't want to break any rules here, as you all are an awesome group.

I installed malware bytes and the scan did not come up clean.

So, any help here on moving forward would be so appreciated.

Thanks much!

Use Malwarebytes in safe mode is a good start but you don't want to hear the advice I would say. heh heh

Hint: It involves an .iso, a DVDR or USB key and lots of installers to install from after using said .iso.

Well I'll just say it I suppose. Real advice is to use Killdisk to 0 out the drive. Then install Windows.

Good news about your dad.
I would say start a new thread in the proper forum, you get more advice there then here.

Sven

I shall do that. The Team Viewer thing has been awesome and now I've had relatives coming out of the woodwork asking about using to help each other out. I think it has been an awesome device, especially with helping out our older relatives who are now making the jump up from XP or older to Win 7 or 8.

Sven1458 said:

Good news about your dad.
I would say start a new thread in the proper forum, you get more advice there then here.

Sven

Click to expand...

Team Viewer is great. And it's free. Pretty amazing.