Recommendat​ions for being able to remotely see user's desktops

I've got a situation in which we've got a new user, who is having problems with one of our legacy programs.  (It is an old VB6 app we wrote 10+ years ago, relying on third party controls from a company that's gone out of business.)  This program is one that I desperately want to replace, but it is huge (at least for us) and won't be quickly replaced.  Meanwhile, we've got to continue to support old legacy app.  This user is “loosing” data in a couple of sections of the app, but it is very hard to diagnose what's going on.  For one thing, none of the other users are encountering the same problem, and they're all using the same version of the app.  I strongly suspect that the problem is user-caused, but trying to witness it happening is difficult.  The nature of our business requires a lot of confidentiality.  Our users are counselors using an application we wrote to capture several hundreds of data elements in an interview they do with a client.  This is a private interview and not all clients are willing to let me be present to watch how this user is using the application.  Therefore, when the user has the problem, I may not be able to see what's going on, because the client doesn't want me present.

Therefore, it would really be great if there is some way I could get to the user's desktop, from my desktop, to see what's going on.  I wouldn't be in the room with the client, their confidentiality is maintained, and I can get an idea as to what this user is doing which is causing the data not to be saved.  What technologies are there available to allow me to remotely get to the user's desktop, and see what it is she is seeing/doing?  I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate, but all of our users are using Windows XP with service pack 3.  The best solutions, in this case, would be those that are free or very inexpensive.  After all, once I find out what's going on and can tell the user what it is she's doing, we'll probably not use this remote watching application again.

Rather than remotely viewing the screen, you could just record it.  I've used Camtasia in the past, and it works pretty good:

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/

@RodAtWork: There's remote assistance, which is part of Windows since XP. An alternative to that is logmein, which has the disadvantage that it requires extra software but it works much more reliably than RA.

Skype also has the ability to share the screen with the person you're calling, which may be sufficient for your needs.

1 hour ago, Sven Groot wrote

@RodAtWork: There's remote assistance, which is part of Windows since XP. An alternative to that is logmein, which has the disadvantage that it requires extra software but it works much more reliably than RA.

Skype also has the ability to share the screen with the person you're calling, which may be sufficient for your needs.

Then there's also various VNC implementations; my favourite being TightVNC; it's a simple program but works great over LANs for remote assistance without tying into Windows' own features (and I could never get Remote Assistance to work) nor requiring the installation of any driver software (as LogMeIn does).

I hear good things about gotoassist.com, but haven't used it myself.

take a look at www.teamviewer.com ... very easy to use.

@RodAtWork: There is a freeware tool called Gencontrol that will do this. Just make sure you are running a higher res than the user and you dont mouse over the window or you'll initiate control.

Its a simple .exe which will locate all pc's on your network and requires no client install.

http://www.topshareware.com/Gencontrol-download-9507.htm

I have used Webex and GotoMeeting for much of these sorts of things

You can get 30 day evals for each of these services, You setup the meeting and invit the person to join your meeting via and Email. When they join you can hand them the ball and they can share their desktop. You can be talking to them on the phone and watch everything that they do and when they do it. Alternately you can be allowed to control their desktop while you are on with them and pilot the thing yourself.

We have used it here alot because it requires ZERO installation of anything on the clients systems. where the VNC's of the world do. It also allows several people to watch whats happening on whoevers desktop is being shared. (Its not just point A and point B)

If they are running XP there is always the remote assistence thing that was built into XP. If it was installed when xp was setup. (A lot of XP installs from the likes of DELL and HP and what not appear to have had it disabled)

very timely thread as i'm about to get a mac mini to run "headless" as an htpc in the living room (also to get my feet wet in iOS development... maybe). unfortuneatly i have yet to find a way for my pc laptop to remotely control a mac mini that tunnnels sound. this is one area that microsoft rdp is superior to all others i've seen.