Collaborate and Share Screen Sessions with up to 15 People Using Microsoft SharedView

Microsoft is just cranking out the awesome free apps nowadays. Today I came across a GotoMeeting like program that allows up to 15 people to connect and work on a set of documents. The only catch is that the presenter or organizer needs to have a Free Microsoft Live ID. You do not have to use it to send your meeting requests out nor do you have to force your users to sign up for a live ID.

Now you can collaborate across countries and time zones with ease and for free.

I started by browsing on over to: http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=94

I downloaded and installed the 3.2MB application. Once it finished installing it prompted me to restart any and all Microsoft Office applications and Firefox… Wait… What?

Microsoft acknowledged that it is not the only popular browser on the market? WOW! That's a huge step for the boys in Redmond. Before we start let's take a look at the system requirements. That way we don't get you all worked up over nothing

System requirements:

• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows XP Service Pack 2
• 700MHz CPU
• 
  
• Memory: Minimum 256MB of RAM (512 MB recommended)
• Hard disk: 10MB of free hard disk space
• Display: Minimum 800 × 600 screen resolution (1024 × 768 recommended)
• Applications: DirectX 8.0 or higher installed on your computer
• Internet connection: Broadband Internet access, 300 kbps minimum. Slower connections may work, but the experience may not be optimal.
• A Windows Live ID if you want to start your own sessions (you do not need one to join someone else’s session).

I did as I was told and restarted my applications. And then I fired up SharedView.

The box above was shown in my upper left hand corner of my desktop.

I signed in using my old school Hotmail account and proceeded to click on Start a new session.

It gives you the information you need to get to your participants. The users that will connect to your session will need all the above information. They do not need anything, not even a email address to connect.

When the users click on the link they will see this:

They need to click install and run the attachment like so:

They run through a brief installation and then you will see the attendee arrive and then they will be displayed in your participant count at the top of your screen.

Hit the share button and define what you want the participant to see:

The application does not have many options but here they are:

To see Microsoft's real world example you can click on over to here.

All in all this is a great free application that you may find very useful in your daily activities. Do you love another similar application? What are you waiting for – share it with us in the comments.