Applications That Share Desktop Content

The requi­re­ment to exchange computer files is obvious, but often it is desi­rable to share desktop content as well. When all of the parties are in the same room, it is simple to view another user’s desktop directly or use a device and presen­ta­tion soft­ware for projec­ting images onto a screen. But incre­a­singly in todays compu­ting world, it is necessary to see what is happe­ning on a computer display in another buil­ding, city, or even country. Soft­ware making it possible to share desktop visuals and audio from one computer to another becomes inva­lu­able. So it may come as a surprise to some that desktop sharing soft­ware does indeed exist for all to use, some­times with free versions, for the purposes of a web confe­rence, for instance.

Control of a Shared Desktop

Desktop content can be shared in either of two basic approa­ches. The computer desktop to be shared can func­tion as the master, pushing data over a network to one or more clients. Alter­na­tively, by estab­li­shing a remote desktop connec­tion a master user can command a remote desktop and pull the data. In either case, the screen content produced on the shared system is repli­cated and sent via the network to a window on each remote computer.

Practical Applications of Desktop Sharing

One of the most common imple­men­ta­tion of a shared desktop is for soft­ware to faci­li­tate an online meeting. For a widespread orga­niz­a­tion or a company that serves custo­mers in a diffe­rent loca­tion, an appli­ca­tion that hosts a web meeting over a network can enable huge savings in money and time by redu­cing the need for travel. Meeting atten­dees can still view a web presen­ta­tion and parti­ci­pate in discus­sion, just as they would if ever­yone was located in the same confe­rence room. Online trai­ning can also be provided to remote students via a desktop share. Students can follow an e‑learning lecture, view presen­ta­tions and mate­rials, and interact with the inst­ructor. This approach enables students to enroll in courses beyond those other­wise avail­able to them. Both of these are examples of pushing data from a master system to the clients via web confe­ren­cing soft­ware.

An example of pulling the shared desktop data is a trave­ling employee logging in via a laptop to access a personal office desktop or a depart­mental work­sta­tion. While on the road, the employee can still access soft­ware and computer power that may not be avail­able on the portable system. A second illus­tra­tion is computer support, where an expert can assume control of a malfunc­tio­ning system to diagnose a hard­ware, soft­ware, or data problem.

Share Desktop Summary

By using soft­ware that provides a means to share desktop data from a remote system, computer users needing busi­ness soft­ware for work within government, compa­nies, or distance lear­ning insti­tu­tions can greatly expand the infor­ma­tion tech­no­logy at their disposal.