If you can't be there in person, it's always possible that you can be there via TridiaVNC . This reminds me of a few server features we had back in the old BBS days. This was great for guiding someone exactly to the services they wanted. Okay, I'll admit that it was mostly use to commandeer someone's keyboard during a chat session, but it was also a vital help tool. Honest, it was.
Remote control is now back in the picture thanks to a growing number of programs.
Unfortunately, most of those programs sport a hefty price tag. TridiaVNC is a spiffy little Open Source effort that's available to anyone for the downloading. Use the program as long as you want, or even modify the code to suit your own needs. If you want more in the way of support and documentation, there's a boxed version of the program available for a very reasonable fee. Even if that computer is on the other side of the world, you can run programs, change system settings, or do just about anything else.