Is there a more lightweight solution? Like, some ssh frontend? I’d like to help my mom cleaning up her Windows computer because she’s not very tech savvy. I can of course just screen share on some messaging app but it’d save so much time if I could have control.
I’m not going to be reacting to answers advising me to install a Windows esque distro on her computer.


VNC server on her computer. VNC client on your computer. Make sure password is very strong since you’re opening this to the wider internet. Open a port for VNC to pass through on your moms router (and possibly your own as well), and then connect remotely.
TigerVNC seems to be available for all platforms, including Windows and Linux. TigerVNC includes a server and client. (Client is sometimes called “viewer.”)
https://tigervnc.org/
https://github.com/TigerVNC/tigervnc
Cool! Thanks for the explanation too! I generate all my passwords with Keepass with word lengths that make a lot of systems scream upon decryption, so I think I’ll be fine lol. I’m challenging YOU, triple letter agency… 👀
Bonus points if you encapsulate VNC in SSH, which would help keep your session secure regardless of the VNC password length
Initiate a ssh session with -L 5900:server name:5900
Start a vnc server on the server
Connect to vnc on localhost:5900 and authenticate
Best advice that I forgot to include because it’s been a while since I needed VNC for anything. @akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone, please follow @ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone’s advice here!
Mighty! Thank you both! 😊