Dad's in Tulsa with a new Mac and I'm in Nashville. Is there a way I can troubleshoot/control his desktop from here without buying software? Really need to figure this out quick.

does he have me.com?

if not, have him download chicken of the vnc

In current ichat, you can also share screens

Here's the problem. He forgot his system password and put in the install disc and it appears he did a clean install... wiping out everything he's had on there for a year. I suspect there is nothing I can do to recover it. So my plan is to drive all the way home this weekend, set his computer back up, and figure out how to remote control it so anytime I have to troubleshoot it I won't have to go through this again. Probably should pick up a drive and clone his while I'm there.

put a drive on it, set up time machine, then he can restore easily.

Sign him up for mobile me, then you can easily remote control him via "back to my mac" or ichat.

Recovery is a giant pain in the ass, and is only worth it if the data's REALLY worth it.

What's funny is, on a Windows machine, a clean install means you're less inept.

Depending on which version of Windows this was it's highly likely that it didn't touch the file structure of non-windows OS related files. And you just use the free trial of gotomypc or something like that to have a look at it.

does he have me.com?

if not, have him download chicken of the vnc

In current ichat, you can also share screens

Well Dad came into town 2 weeks ago and I went through his computer. Surprisingly everything appeared to be fairly intact. He lost all of his email, bookmarks, and documents... but all the programs I put on there worked fine.

I went ahead and set up 2 AIM accounts so we could do iChat. Did the share screen thing for the first time today and it worked like a charm. So much easier to troubleshoot when I can see his desktop and talk at the same time. Really appreciate the suggestion... worked great!