4 Best Free Remote Screen Annotation Software For Windows

Here is a list of best free remote screen annotation software for Windows. Remote screen annotation is commonly used for teaching purposes and to draw attention to a specific part of a screen. Through these software, you can access and annotate the screen of a remote system. Through some software, you can also quickly switch between the screens of multiple remote systems and annotate their screens.  To annotate the screen, most of these software offer a simple freehand draw or pen tool. Although some of them also offer shape tools, text tools, underline tools, etc. You can also find virtual whiteboards in some software that users can annotate and share with one another. These software also provide handy session recording features through which you can record the entire screen annotation session. Overall the process to annotate the remote screen is quite simple in all these software.

These software also acts as online video conferencing software that let you conduct meetings with multiple users at a time. To communicate with one another, you get video conferencing, audio conferencing, and text chat features. Besides this, users can also share their work screen with one another. Other useful features like file transfer, screenshot, access permissions, etc., are present in some software. Go through the list to know more about these software.

My Favorite Remote Screen Annotation Software For Windows:

AnyDesk is my favorite software because it not only annotates a remote screen but also lets you control the entire remote system. Plus, it offers multiple screen annotation tools that you can easily use.

You can also check out lists of best free Remote Working, Remote Task Manager, and Remote Access software for Windows.

AnyDesk

AnyDesk is a free remote screen annotation software for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and FreeBSD. It is mainly a remote desktop client software that also lets you annotate the screen of a remote computer. Plus, you can also use it to take control of a remote system and access it like your own system. You can also open applications on a remote system with it. The process to connect to a remote system is also quite simple. To do that, you need to enter the AnyDesk ID of a remote system to your system to establish the connection. Now, check out its main features.

Main Features:

• Annotation Bar: By clicking on the Pen icon, you can open up the annotation bar. In this bar, you can find many annotation tools through which you can underline objects, circle objects, write over objects, and change the color of annotation for different objects.
• Multi-Screen Annotation: This software also enables you to connect to multiple remote systems at a time. You can quickly switch between the screen of different remote systems through tabs and annotate them using the annotation bar tools with ease.
• Session Recording: Through this feature, you can record the entire screen annotation session that you can later view and share with others.
• Screenshots: After annotation, you can also take screenshots of the screen of remote systems and save them as images.

Additional Features:

• Permissions: Using it, users of remote systems can grant more or reduce existing permissions such as transmit sound, control mouse, control keyboard, synchronize clipboard, block user input, etc.
• Chat: Using it, you can chat with users of the remote systems.
• File Transfer: This feature allows you to transfer files and data between your and remote system.

Limitation:

• This software is only free for non-commercial use.

Final Thoughts:

It is a good remote screen annotation software that offers all the essential annotation and remote screen access features.

TeamViewer

TeamViewer is a free and popular remote access software that can also be used as a remote screen annotation software. It works on Windows, macOS, Linux, and other popular operating systems. Using it, you can connect, access, and control a remote system. To establish the connection between remote and local systems, you need to enter the TeamViewer ID and Password of the remote system to the local system. After the connection, you can view the remote desktop screen and start annotating the remote screen using available annotation tools. Now, check out its main features.

Main Features:

• Whiteboard: It is the primary section that offers all the annotation tools such as Pen (to perform freehand annotation), Highlighter (use it to highlight any object or text present on the remote screen), Eraser (to remove annotations), Rectangle (to draw rectangle shape over the remote screen feed), Text (to write text over the remote screen), etc.
• Session Recording: You can use it to record the remote screen annotation process and other screen activities.
• Screenshot: It allows you to take the screenshot of the remote screen with or without annotation.

Additional Features:

• Communicate: This section offers multiple communication tools that allow you to chat and video call with the users of remote systems.
• File Transfer: Through this feature, you can easily transfer files, data, and documents between remote and local computers.
• Switch Sides with Partner: It is a handy feature that lets you give controls of your local system to the user of a connected remote system.

Limitations:

• The free version of TeamViewer is only available for private and non-commercial use.

Final Thoughts:

It is another capable remote screen annotation software that also lets you record the entire screen annotation session.

Screen

Screen is another free remote screen annotation software for Windows. This software can also be used as an online meeting and screen sharing software. It offers all three methods of communication with multiple users such as video conferencing, audio conferencing, and text chats. Plus, it also lets you annotate over the screen that other joined users can view. Now, check out the main features of this software.

Main Features:

• Pen Tool: It is the main annotation tool that this software offers through which you can easily annotate the screen during an online meeting. Along with the pen tool, you also get a color palette to annotate the screen with different colors.
• Lock Pen Tool: By default, all the annotations over the screen automatically disappears after a few seconds. If you want to lock annotations permanently over the screen, you need to enable this lock pen feature.
• Screen Share: Through this feature, all the users of a meeting can share their screen with other users over which anyone can annotate.

Note:

• This software is completely free to use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Final Thoughts:

It is one of the simplest software to host meetings and annotate remote screens.

Zoom

Zoom is another free remote screen annotation software for Windows, iOS, and Android. It is primarily an online meeting software through which you can communicate with multiple users at a time through video conferencing and text chats. To annotate the remote screen, it provides a whiteboard that can be annotated by multiple users. During the annotation, users can also perform voice, video, and text chats. Let’s take a brief look at the main features of this software.

Main Features:

• Whiteboard: This feature comes under the Screen Share section that lets a remote user share a whiteboard with multiple users. Over the whiteboard, you can easily annotate through available annotation tools like Text (to add text over the whiteboard), Draw (to freehand draw or annotate over the whiteboard), Stamp (to add stamp over the whiteboard), Eraser (to remove annotations), and more. After the annotation, you can locally save the whiteboard.
• Record: Through this feature, you can record the entire meeting along with the whiteboard annotation process. All the recordings will save in MP4 video format.

Additional Features:

• Reactions: During a meeting, all its participants can use this feature to share clap and thumb up reactions with others.
• Participants: It allows the meeting host to mute, remove, and add more participants.
• Security: It is an administrative feature for the meeting host so that he or she can allow other participants to chat and share a whiteboard during the meeting.

Limitations:

• In this free version of Zoom, you can only host up to 100 participants and perform a group meeting for up to 40 minutes.

Final Thoughts:

It is another capable remote screen annotation that enables multiple users to annotate and share their screens with others.