How to monitor an XP machine

I have a Windows 7 machine and XP machine on the same router. If someone is using the XP machine, how can I see what they're doing from my Windows 7 machine?

Solution 1:

You could set up UltraVNC on the XP machine, then connect to it as view only. Unless the person figures out VNC is running, they wouldn't know you were connected.

Solution 2:

What kind of monitoring do you want to do? Who owns the XP machine? If you don't own the machine, keep in mind that you would almost certainly be violating privacy laws depending on how closely you are intruding. Keep in mind the legal implications of what you might be asking.

There are several kinds of monitoring I can envision being useful. If you own the machine and have administrative access to it, it's easy enough to install any of a variety of software to log keystrokes, monitor website usage, remotely view the screen, etc. If you don't have admin access, then installing any of the above will be difficult, and would require physical access to the machine, or tricking the user into downloading and installing something. Again, this may run you afoul of the law, not to mention of the person whose machine it is.