You may have heard the news recently that LogMeIn’s free accounts are being discontinued. I switched to LogMeIn for remote PC access back when Microsoft discontinued their super-awesome Live Mesh software which did a similar thing and much more. Basically, you install the software on which ever computers you own and then you can use your single LogMeIn account to access those PCs remotely via the web or any of their mobile apps. Now that LogMeIn is no longer free, it’s time to find something else that will let me access my home personal computer periodically. Goodbye LogMeIn.
Hello TeamViewer!
It turns out that there is a very good alternative to LogMeIn that I’ve only recently heard of after doing a quick search for “LogMeIn alternatives”. TeamViewer is a similar product that offers a free account for personal use. That means you can use it to access your home computer from your tablet or phone while you’re away or you can help a friend fix something on their PC without having to drive over there. If you want to do something like offer tech support to customers or conduct business meetings, you should pay for a full version license.
TeamViewer lets you save all of your Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux machines in a list that you can access from one account log in. You can use the same app to enable remote access as well as to remotely access other systems. There’s a web browser-based client too, but the native client seems to work better. Oh, and there are mobile device clients for Android, iOS, Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8. LogMeIn only had mobile apps available for iOS and Android, so that gives TeamViewer another big win for supporting more platforms.
TeamViewer even has special features made for accessing Windows 8 PCs remotely. For example, there are special buttons for snapping apps, accessing charms, accessing the menu bar, and opening the start screen. That way you don’t have to struggle with edge gestures if you’re running a remote session in a non-full-screen window.
Overall, I am hugely impressed with TeamViewer’s free personal remote desktop sharing service. The software also has a lot of other great features for more professional uses such as help desk tech support, business meetings, and managing servers, but mainly I just want to be able to log into my home computer from a tablet or smartphone once in a while. In that respect, TeamViewer excels and does so much better than LogMeIn ever did.
Sorry, LogMeIn, the last time I used you was to download and install TeamViewer remotely.
Originally published on Pocketnow on January 28, 2014.