I don't know about you, but in my life the following situation occurs on a regular basis. Phone call. It's a random member of my family, or a friend. Their PC doesn't work, and they think you might be able to fix it. Cue them trying to explain the problem over the phone, and utterly failing, as well as the two of you getting utterly confused, your friendship or family bonds getting severed, and never speaking to each other ever again.
What you need is some way of seeing the other person's PC. Services like VNC or LogMeIn. Except that those are a bit fiddly and complex for a technophobe to set up and configure. No - you need something easier. Enter Teamviewer.
Teamviewer did a fantastic job this morning when I used to it to help my Dad troubleshoot a network issue. Despite him living in a remote village in eastern France, I was able to quickly and securely view his desktop. If I'd wanted to, I'd have been able to conduct a presentation, transfer a file, or join a VPN.
All he needed to do was install a small program, and give me a userID and password. Seriously - if my Dad could manage it, then it can't have been tricky. It's free for non-commercial use, and very functional. I can't recommend it enough.
Now all you need to know is how to actually fix the damn thing. For that, I recommend this guide from Lifehacker. Good luck, and don't forget to set their homepage to Tech Digest when you're done.
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