Can have more basic details on remote access?

Remote access is exactly as the name suggests. It allows you to access your computer remotely.

For example: I have remote access enabled on my own computer. When I go to my mates house I am able to log onto my computer as if I was sitting in front of it at home. I will be looking at my desktop, my wallpaper, my screensaver and all my files and docs will be there too. I can even print documents on my home printer, open the CD and close the CD drive, turn on the webcam etc... And Im doing all this from my mates computer. I am doing it all remotely.

So how is this done? There are hundreds of free and commercial programs out there that will do this for you, however there is one built into your computer called Remote Desktop which I would suggest you use a few times at least, before spending money.

Go to: Start / Programs / Accessories / Remote Desktop Connection

Remote Desktop is fairly good. It will probably be more than enough for the average home user. Its straight forward enough to set-up aswell. All going well you can do it in probably under 5 mins. Sometimes, though not often, it can be a bit fussy. But you will usually find its something to do with permissions. I'm not going to go into the details on how to set-up it up - that question has being answered a few times before. However a small bit of advice, YouTube has a whole repertoire of Excellent videos detailing the procedure every step of the way.