Are you the family "technician", who helps troubleshoot IT & computer issues with family, relatives, and friends? Here is one way of helping them remotely without possibly passing on any sickness to them or if you don't live nearby.
Windows 10 has a little-known feature called "Quick Assist". I discovered this a few years back when helping my dad with some computer issues across the country.
My dad is not the most tech-savvy, so when I was able to walk him through setting up a remote session with an already built-in feature of Windows 10, I was elated.
Warning: If you are receiving remote help, please only use this feature with someone you trust. Do NOT accept connections from people you do not know.
First, open quick assist by searching "Quick Assist" in the Start menu.
After clicking to open it, it will have two options, Get assistance or Give assistance:
When you choose "Give assistance", it takes you to a screen where it provides you with a security code (code expires within 10 minutes) to establish a connection, and it also provides instructions for the other person and different ways of sharing that info along with the code (user-friendly):
The "Provide instructions" option gives you the below:
"Give the security code to the person you’re helping and tell them to follow these steps:
Open the Start menu and select All apps > Windows Accessories > Quick Assist.
Select Get assistance and follow the instructions.
If User Account Control appears, select Yes to continue.
After the steps are completed, please wait a few minutes for your devices to connect."
Your user will have to approve the connection (blue "Allow" button). There is also a warning basically saying to make sure non-essential programs and private data are shut down since you will be able to see everything.
You will also be provided with the below options:
Once they hit approve, it can take 15-30 seconds for the connection to establish depending on your network speeds (maybe longer).
I also suggest pinning Quick Assist to the taskbar if you expect you might need to help in the future again. This will make it even more easy and painless for setting up a remote session. To pin it, just right-click on the icon and select "pin to taskbar".
Once you are done helping (I'm usually on the phone with them talking them through what I'm doing to fix the issue), I always make sure to mention that I am ending the remote session and then actually ending it (the controls at the top of the screen for the remote session are straight forward and simple).
I have used Quick Assist a handful of times since discovering it, and I am impressed with the simple yet effective solution for quickly helping family members or friends with IT issues. Plus, it's free, part of windows 10, and doesn't involve configuration.