Free alternative to Teamviewer?

For Windows 10 and Windows 11, there is already a built-in app called Quick Assist. It's a bit bare-bones compared to Team Viewer but it's free and it works out of the box.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Assist

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9p7bp5vnwkx5?hl=en-US&gl=U...

I’m a fan of RustDesk for my IT consulting needs.

https://rustdesk.com/

I haven't tried it but there's https://remotedesktop.google.com

It's quite interesting how "install a one-time thing, get code, get access" turns out to be such a difficult and apparently unprofitable business.

TeamViewer has always been evil, due to their persistent-install-by-default policy, not to mention them clinging to 4-digits PINs for years after that ceased to be viable, and refusing to respond to security concerns with anything approaching transparency. I used to be a paid customer for many years, but had to abandon ship due to ever-increasing costs (yeah for mandatory viewer upgrades!) related to MSP features that I never asked for and were complicating even the most basic tasks.

Then, I turned to Splashtop, which was glorious for a while. Until they decided to assign me a "customer success representative" and wanted to do the same MSP upsell, even though I explicitly and repeatedly asked them to leave me alone.

Since then, I've mostly been using Windows QuickAssist, and it's OK: you still need to be on the phone with the party you support to guide them through various permission prompts, but that's probably unavoidable.

The list of failed products in this space is impressive, by the way! Anyone remember Fog Creek Copilot? Weird, because "I'll pay you $99.95 on an annual basis to do 2-3 remote sessions every month" sounds like it should be lucrative...

RustDesk has been my go-to for nearly two years now.

Their main C&C server had experienced a DDOS late last year that I could have avoided being affected by if I had set up my own C&C server, but I wasn’t in the right spot for that work so I just remained patient and rode it out.

Only paid features (IIRC) are if you want your list of saved connections to follow you across more than one computer, which requires an account to do.

AnyDesk seems like the most obvious drop-in replacement. It's not awful either, I've used it for remote video editing quite successfully.

I'm less thrilled that for both AD and TV the client and server is the same application. I want to be able to connect to other people's computers without ever having something hook into or have the possibility to display my own desktop.

Modern builds of Windows have a "Remote Assistance" feature that functions just like that.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/solve-pc-problem...

Try NoMachine. IME, performance is pretty sub-par, but if it's a once in a while thing you probably don't care that much. It's also got a "clean" and "modern" UI that would look right at home on a toddler's toy.

Mesh Central has been really great for me. Moved to it from rust desk.

https://meshcentral.com/

Use it to manage my entire family's computers and phones.

I ran into this problem recently too, i found https://www.helpwire.app as an alternative, it was very useful as it clearly showed me what step the client was on to start the connection. However it doesn't allow unattended access, I will likely use a combination of this and Rustdesk

If your only issue with TeamViewer is that it's falsely flagging you for commercial use, you can fill out a form to reset it (it's not instant though)

https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/special/reset-management/

Hasn't Winders had this feature built in for over 20 years?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/solve-pc-problem...

RustDesk is all you need. It's pretty decent and they have quite a few options even for business usage

Reemo: <https://reemo.io/>

You don't even need a code or install a client (you can use Chrome). Sometimes I use it for gaming, too.

I find https://www.dwservice.net/en/home.html serves my needs very well.

I've been using RealVNC for some non-critical remote access.

Not an answer to this particular case, but Steam Link can work as a free replacement for when you need performance. I use VNC for the more robust situations.

Tailscale + RDP.

RDP built into windows should work well?

RealVNC, Parsec, RustDesk, DWService...

would webex free plan work you can share screens and she can give you control

Chrome Remote Desktop.

look into screenconnect