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Remote Assistance is a powerful Windows feature that lets you permit a designated helper to connect to your computer, see what’s going on, and help you out of trouble. The helper - a friend, an administrator, or a Microsoft support professional; whomever you choose - can control the computer directly if you give them permission, or you can simply chat with them and apply yourself such of their advice as you deem fit. Or you can use Remote Assistance to help another person who requests your assistance. Remote Assistance works with Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003, but not with earlier versions of Windows, such as Windows 98 and Windows Me.

Understanding the Basics of Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance lets a user who needs help share the display of their screen and, if they wish, control of their computer, with another user across a network or Internet connection. For ease of reference, the user requesting assistance is termed the novice, though they may be an experienced user. The user providing assistance is termed the expert; again, the usual connotations needn’t apply. To use Remote Assistance, both the novice’s computer and the expert’s computer must be running Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. The novice sends an invitation via e-mail or via Windows Live Messenger, or saves it as a file for example, to a network location designated for Remote Assistance request files, or on a floppy or CD that they then put in the snail mail. When the expert responds, the novice decides whether to accept their help. Each of the three methods of requesting Remote Assistance has its advantages and disadvantages. An e-mail invitation lets the novice include details of the problem with which they need help - but the novice doesn’t know when the expert will check their e-mail, or if the novice will be online when the expert tries to respond. A Messenger invitation will be received immediately, but you can only send the invitation when the expert is online. A file invitation is harder to transfer to the expert and may not receive a response in a short enough time frame to be helpful. On the other end of the wire, you can provide help via Remote Assistance. You can either wait for someone to send you an invitation by any of the three methods discussed here, or you can offer Remote Assistance unsolicited.

How Remote Assistance Differs from Remote Desktop Connection

Like Remote Desktop Connection discussed in Article 30, Remote Assistance uses Windows’s Terminal Services feature to achieve its effects. Terminal Services also discussed in Article 30 is a technology that passes keystrokes, mouse movements and clicks, and video display information across a network or Internet connection, allowing remote control of a computer running Windows Vista Business or Ultimate.

Although the two have some similarities, Remote Assistance is substantially different from Remote Desktop Connection. Remote Desktop Connection is designed to let you remotely control a computer on which you have a user account. While you’re remotely controlling the computer, the monitor attached to the computer displays the Welcome screen or the Log On to Windows screen, depending on how it’s configured, so nobody physically at the computer can see what you’re doing or take actions on the computer until you disconnect. By contrast, you can’t connect to a computer using Remote Assistance unless there’s somebody the novice at the computer who can respond to the request for the Remote Assistance session. Both the novice and the expert see the screen of the novice’s computer. And the novice has control of their computer until and unless they specifically decide to grant the expert control of it.

Security Considerations for Remote Assistance

Like all remote-control technologies, Remote Assistance has serious security implications that you need to consider before using it. If you give another person remote control of your computer, they can take actions almost as freely as if they were seated in front of the computer. You can watch these actions, and you can take back control of the computer at any time, but you may already be too late: It takes less than a second to delete a key file, and only a little longer to plant a virus or other form of malware. Even if you don’t give the expert control, and simply chat, keep your wits about you when deciding which of their suggestions to implement. Malicious or ill-informed suggestions can do plenty of damage if you apply them without thinking. Never take any actions that could compromise your security or destroy your data. Above all, treat any incoming files with the greatest of suspicion and virus-check them using an up-to-date antivirus program before using them. One particular problem is that you can’t tell that the person at the other computer is who they claim to be. For this reason alone, always protect the Remote Assistance invitations that you send via e-mail or save to a file with a strong password known only to the person from whom you’re requesting help. That way, if someone else is at their computer or is impersonating them, they won’t be able to respond to the Remote Assistance invitation you send. Provided that you choose your helper wisely and don’t take any rash actions, Remote Assistance is pretty secure. Windows encrypts the Remote Assistance connection, so it’s not likely that anybody will be able to hack into it.

Turning On Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance must be turned on before you can use it. To turn on Remote Assistance on your computer, take the following steps:

1. Press Windows Key+Break. Windows opens the System window of Control Panel.

2. Click the Remote Settings link, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the Remote page of the System Properties dialog box .

3. Select the Remote Assistance Invitations Can Be Sent from This Computer check box. Selecting this check box lets you and other users of this computer send Remote Assistance invitations via e-mail, asking other people for help.

4. If you simply want to turn on Remote Assistance, click the OK button, and Windows closes the System Properties dialog box. But what you probably should do is set the limits for Remote Assistance, as described in the next section. Leave the System Properties dialog box open and read on.

Setting Limits for Remote Assistance

For security, you may prefer to prevent your helper from ever controlling your computer remotely. You can also change the length of time for which Remote Assistance invitations last before they expire, and decide whether to accept Remote Assistance connections only from computers running Windows Vista and later versions of Windows rather than versions earlier than Windows Vista. To set limits for Remote Assistance, take the following steps:

1. Click the Advanced button in the Remote Assistance group box on the Remote page of the System Properties dialog box. Windows displays the Remote Assistance Settings dialog box .

2.In the Remote Control group box, clear the Allow This Computer to Be Controlled Remotely check box if you don’t want your helpers to be able to control the computer. Even when this check box is selected, you need to approve each request for control of the PC manually, so leaving it selected is not a great security threat.

3. In the Invitations group box, use the two drop-down lists to specify an expiration limit for Remote Assistance invitations that your computer sends out. Depending on how soon you expect your helpers to be able to respond, you might set anything from 30 minutes to a couple of days.

4. If you want to prevent computers running Windows XP and other pre-Vista versions of Windows that support Remote Assistance from connecting to your computer, select the Create Invitations That Can Only Be Used from Computers Running Windows Vista or Later check box. The Windows Vista version of Remote Assistance is marginally more secure than earlier versions, but unless you’re certain that your helper is using Windows Vista, it’s best to clear this check box.

5. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Remote Assistance Settings dialog box, returning you to the System Properties dialog box.

6. Click the OK button. Windows closes the System Properties dialog box. You’re now ready to start sending out invitations for Remote Assistance.

Sending a Remote Assistance Invitation via E-mail

E-mail is an easy way to get a Remote Assistance invitation to your helper. E-mail isn’t as quick as sending an invitation via an instant-messaging program as discussed in the next section, but it has the advantage that you don’t need to be sure your helper is online before you can send the invitation. You can send a Remote Assistance invitation either via a standard e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook or Windows Mail or via a web-based e-mail program such as Hotmail or Gmail. Some e-mail programs aren’t able to send Remote Assistance invitations automatically; in this case, you can create a Remote Assistance invitation file and attach it manually to an e-mail message.

Sending a Remote Assistance Invitation via a Standard E-mail Program

To send a Remote Assistance invitation as an e-mail message via your existing e-mail account, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start All Programs Maintenance Windows Remote Assistance. Windows opens a Windows Remote Assistance window , asking whether you want to ask for help or offer help.

2. Click the Invite Someone You Trust to Help You button. Windows displays the next screen .

3. Click the Use E-mail to Send an Invitation button. Windows displays the Choose a Password for Connecting to Your Computer screen .

4. Type your chosen password in each of the text boxes, and then click the Next button. Remote Assistance displays the Starting Your E-mail screen, and then creates a new e-mail message in your default e-mail program. Remote Assistance attaches to the message a small file named RATicket.MsRcIncident, which contains details of the Remote Assistance connection.

If Help and Support Center can’t find your e-mail program, it displays the Your E-mail Invitation Was Not Sent screen . If you haven’t yet set up your e-mail program, set it up now, and then try running Remote Assistance again. More likely, Remote Assistance doesn’t work with your e-mail program because your e-mail program doesn’t support the Messaging Application Programming Interface MAPI standard, a layer of code that enables programs to send messages automatically. In this case, you can save the Remote Assistance invitation as a file, and then attach it manually to an e-mail message. Click the Next button. Windows displays the Save the Invitation as a File screen, discussed in the next section.

The password is both Remote Assistance’s strength and its weakness. The password is your main means of ensuring that only the person you intend can actually connect to your computer, so it’s essential to use a password strong enough to protect yourself against malefactors. The problem is that you need to communicate the password to your helper. Given that you’re sending the Remote Assistance invitation via e-mail, you may be tempted to include the password in the invitation message itself. Don’t do this, as it removes all the security that the password adds. It’s much better to tell the expert the password on the phone, in person if possible, or via instant messaging.

Make the password a strong one: at least six characters long, not a name or a real word in any language, and including at least one symbol and at least one number. Use a new password for each Remote Assistance invitation rather than establishing a standard password with your helper and then reusing it.

5.Address the message and edit its text as needed. The canned text includes a “Personal message:” section at the end for you to add text that will help the recipient identify you if your name is widely used and persuade them to come to your help. You may get better results from adding personal text at the beginning of the message so that the canned text seems less awkward. Consider also editing the Subject line from its default text “You have received a Remote Access invitation”, which may look like spam to some recipients.

6. Click the Send button or whichever button your e-mail program uses to send the message. After you’ve sent the message, you see the Windows Remote Assistance window with the “Waiting for incoming connection” message, as shown here. Minimize the window while you’re waiting to hear back from your helper.

Sending a Remote Assistance Invitation via a Web-Based E-mail Program

If you want to use a web-based e-mail program to send the Remote Assistance invitation, you must save the invitation to a file and then attach it to an e-mail message manually. On the How Do You Want to Invite Someone to Help You? screen, click the Save This Invitation as a File button. Windows displays the Save the Invitation as a File screen , which suggests saving the invitation as the file Invitation.msrcincident on your Desktop. You can choose a different location if you want, but the Desktop is as good a location as any, because you should delete the invitation file once you’ve sent it. The Type a Password text box and the Confirm the Password text box contain the password you typed already. You can change the password if you want, but normally you shouldn’t need to. Click the Finish button. You’ll see the Windows Remote Assistance window with the “Waiting for incoming connection” message. Minimize this window, go to your e-mail program, and create a message to your helper. Attach the Invitation.msrcincident file to the message, send the message, and then delete the invitation file from your desktop. When your helper contacts you, work as described in the section “Receiving Remote Assistance,” later in this article.

Change Your Default Program for E-mail

When you try to send a Remote Assistance invitation via e-mail, you may find that Windows tries to use the wrong e-mail program. If this happens, it’s because Windows is set to use a different e-mail program as a default program than the program you’re using.

To change the default program for e-mail, choose Start Default Programs. In the Default Programs window, click the Set Your Default Programs item to display the Set Your Default Programs window.In the Programs list box on the left, click your mail program, and then click the Set as Default button. Click the OK button to close the Set Your Default Programs window.

Other Ways of Transferring a Remote Assistance Invitation File

Once you’ve saved a Remote Assistance invitation file as described in “Sending a Remote Assistance Invitation via a Web-Based E-mail Program,” you don’t have to send it via e-mail. You can also transfer it via a physical medium or via a network if you prefer.

If the expert is within walking distance, you can put the invitation file on a floppy disk, recordable CD, or USB drive and take it to them. Or you could copy the invitation file to a network drive, and then phone the expert to tell them where it is and what the password is.

You might also need to send the invitation via physical mail. A Remote Assistance invitation file is tiny, so it fits easily on a floppy disk. But if you’re sending the medium through the mail, consider using a recordable CD instead, because the mail-scanning systems instituted since 9/11 may damage floppies.

Sending an Invitation via Windows Live Messenger

If you use Windows Live Messenger for instant messaging, you can send a Remote Assistance invitation directly to a contact who is online. Similarly, you can offer Remote Assistance to one of your contacts if your IM conversation seems to indicate that they’re struggling. If you’ve configured Windows to accept incoming Remote Assistance offers as discussed in “Setting Limits for Remote Assistance,” earlier in this article, you can receive Remote Assistance offers from your IM contacts as well. Article 20 explains how to set up Windows Live Messenger and use it for instant messaging. To send an invitation via Windows Live Messenger, follow these steps:

1. Start Messenger as usual. If Messenger is already running, click its icon in the notification area to activate Messenger. Log on if you’re not already logged on.

2. Click the Show Menu button on the title bar the button with a drop-down arrow, just to the left of the Minimize button and choose Actions Request Remote Assistance. Messenger opens a Windows Live Contacts window for you to select the contact. Click the contact’s name, and then click the OK button.

Request Remote Assistance from an Existing Conversation

You can also request Remote Assistance from a conversation you’re having with a contact. Click the See a List of Activities button and choose Request Remote Assistance from the My Activities list, or click the Show Menu button and choose Actions Request Remote Assistance.

1.Messenger opens an Instant Message window on the specified user’s computer and displays a note saying that you’ve invited the user to start Remote Assistance. To cancel the invitation, click the Cancel link in the Instant Message window, or press Alt+Q.

2.If the expert accepts the invitation, Windows prompts you to create a password for the connection, as shown here.

3. Type the password in the Type a Password text box, type it again in the Confirm the Password text box, and then click the OK button.

4. You now need to communicate your password to the expert. The obvious way to communicate it is by typing it into Messenger, but this is totally insecure. It’s much better to communicate the password by voice, even if doing so is much harder than using text. You might also send the password via e-mail. There’s a risk that the password might be intercepted, but in this case it’s separate from the invitation, which you’ve transferred via Messenger.

5. Wait for your helper to connect, and then proceed as described in “Receiving Remote Assistance,” later in this article.