my friend and i are setting up new computers for his dad's business and he requested the ability to remote desktop and screen share between computers on the network. i know windows has pretty solid remote desktop features built in, but its not exactly the most user friendly experience (the people operating the computers aren't exactly virtuosos when it comes to computer literacy).
what are some solid options out there for this purpose?
Free, Paid? There are some expensive options out there that are quite nice, and some not so much. Windows own built in RDC is very nice and supports dual monitors, its free. It cant monitor services, processes remotely without logging in though. Also require Win Pro editions
Lync aka Skype for Business comes with newer versions of Office and has a desktop shared screen experience built in.
You can also download it for free from Microsoft here.
Other options exist like the built in Desktop Remote Assistance but the Lync/Skype is easier to use, more full featured and uses your contact list in Lync/Skype which makes it user friendly.
I use teamviewer, you can purchase it but you don't have to
You can try splashtop, that may work. other options are the Windows RDC and VNC.
is it full remote desktop or just screen sharing like what is found on skype?
Splashtop influences PC performance waaay more than I would like it to personally so I switched to team viewer and it worked soooo much better than splashtop and is much easier to manage as well as the app for mobile phones doesnt suck nearly as much. The onyl downside to the free teamviewer is there are a few limits with the number of connecitons going on a once but for a small buisness it should be fine. Also whenever you close a connection it says that you for playing fair and has a little popup but it not like spammy and is worth it for what the software provides.
Skype for Business (the new name for Lync) has full two way controllable sharing like VNC + contact lists + individual window sharing (option to full screen).
At the business i work for now (IT Manager there) and i installed TightVNC on all the work machines and set all the computers with Static IP addresses and just ipconfig in CMD and got the ipv4 address and boom can easily watch the screen or control any machine from my control center. Also has a chrome app for the viewer and an IOS and Android app called VNC Viewer.