Many of us working in the industry have faced this situation a countless times – Your parents call up and ask for help on some of the common things on their computers. Often you find it difficult to explain the process over the phone, especially when you are miles away from your parents and your parents have no clue to what you are talking about. In such cases setting up a remote desktop connection in Google Chrome works wonders. But this too is pretty laborious for your parents. Is there any simple solution?

Folks at Google have developed a nice extension for Chrome called the Chrome Remote Desktop. This extension allows you to set up a remote desktop connection through chrome browsers on different computers regardless of the operating systems each computer has. Chrome Remote Desktop is simple and straightforward to use that even your parents won’t find hard to use.

After you install Chrome Remote Desktop from the Chrome Web Store, you can find the app in your chrome app grid. The extensions opens to a simple interface with two options. The best part about this extension is the ease with which you can share computers through this app. Under “Remote Assistance” you can either share your computer with others or you can access a shared computer.

The way this works is that the person who wants to share his computer, passes a 12 digit code to the other person that is generated by the Chrome Remote Desktop app. The other person enters this 12 digit code into the same app in their chrome browser. The connection is established over a secure channel once this code is authenticated. The person can then work on the shared computer right in the chrome browser!

The connection most of the times is fast and you can do almost everything on the shared computer. The Chrome Remote Desktop also has the option to adjust the screen size, either to fit the browser or the original size. You can also view it in fullscreen. The person who shared the computer can continue to work on his computer. Both are given the option to disconnect the connection any time they wish.

This screen sharing option though does not allow you to share files between the computers. This screen sharing app is pretty basic and does what it is advertised to do. It is fast and minimal and most people would find it easy to use. If you want to setup remote desktop connection between two Windows computers, please read our earlier tutorial – setup remote desktop connection between two Windows 7 computers.

The extension also lets you connect to your computer from any computer that has a chrome browser in it through the Remote Desktop option. Your computer needs to be set up for the remote desktop connection, generally found under system settings (On Windows, it’s found in accessories; In Mac OS X, it’s under Sharing Settings).  You can set up multiple remote desktop connections, useful when you are away and want to access your computer.

Chrome Remote Desktop scores on the fact that it is easy to install, pretty quick in setting up connections, you can share computers easily and is connected to your Google account. Now all your parent’s woes on their computers can be easily handled thanks to Chrome Remote Desktop.

You can find more ways to set up remote desktop connections in this post.

Source: Chrome Web Store