I've used TeamViewer, LogMeIn, and GoToAssist (which I use for my clients). Clearly the best of the bunch is GoToAssist, but that is not free.

TeamViewer is annoying for the reasons Rob said.

Frankly, if your father-in-law is comfortable with it, I strongly recommend a one-time process of setting up LogMeIn. Then you can log in at any time and they don't need any interaction whatsoever. All these other remote desktop tools* require varying amounts of work on the other end to get the two people connected. Sometimes this process can make you want to rip your hair out. For example, the address I have to send clients to is "fast support dot com," which I always follow with "fast as in quick or speedy." Every single time my clients don't understand what comes before "support." Ugh.

But enough about me. I strongly recommend LogMeIn. I use it on the computers of my wife, mother, mother-in-law, aunt and uncle, etc. It's free with minimal annoyances.


*I have not tried Chrome Remote Desktop. Very interesting, I might need to look into that...