My mom isn't too great with computers, and I would love to be able to fix her little problems from home. Is there an easy way to access her computer (for free) and make some changes from my home??
Teamviewer http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx?cdsplit=D It is free and easy even for a novice to setup.
Tight VNC is a better one regarding security and configuration but teamviewer is probably the easiest to use,it blasts through firewalls with ease which i why i dont like it,however im talking from a corporate point of view,it should be fine for your mother.
use windows Remote Desktop, integrated with all windows, only needs your user and password, and it works great, and usually you can use it from internal networks (work, university...) since ports and such are open. Plus with a hack you can open another parallel session with even the same user and work remotely while someone is using your PC (he wont notice it, unless he looks at task manager ).
Well, Windows Live Essentials has one called 'Live Mesh'. Works great, and you can combine using it with a (free) Sky Drive account to have a 5GB synced storage between PCs.
There's a lot of solutions out there, but a lot require some additional configuration on ports in Routers and things. That's where Teamviewer works so well. You can make a shortcut to the App, gives them an ID and a pass, very easy for people to work. Works great, allows to easily transfer of files, chat sessions etc. Ammyy is the other alternative. Teamviewer is better I think because at least it works cross platform.
I also enjoy Teamviewer... I am actually amazed on how it do its thing.. they are very effective doing it.