This section explains allowing the expert to connect to your computer, receiving assistance via chat or remote control, and disconnecting the expert when you no longer need their help.

Allowing the Expert to Connect to Your Computer

When the expert responds to an invitation, Windows displays a message box such as the one shown here, asking if you want the expert it gives the name to connect and warning you that the expert will be able to see whatever is on your desktop. Close any programs you don’t want the expert to see, and then click the Yes button.

Details about Remote Assistance

If you don’t take any action for a few minutes when the expert tries to connect to your computer, Windows times out the connection. Remote Assistance automatically configures its settings based on the speed of the connection established with the expert, so that it sends only an appropriate amount of information. But if the connection between you and the expert is slow for example, a modem connection, it will take 30 seconds to a minute for the expert to see changes that appear on your screen in milliseconds - so you need to be patient. Exactly how long it takes depends on the nature of the changes and the screen resolution you’re using as well as on the speed of the connection.

If you’re using the Vista Aero user interface, and the expert’s computer will not be able to display it correctly, Windows displays a notification-area pop-up message telling you that the color scheme has been changed to Windows Vista Basic because “a running program isn’t compatible with certain visual elements of Windows.” If you want to see more detail, you can click the pop-up message to display the dialog box shown here. Select the Don’t Show Me This Again check box if you want to dispense with this warning in future, and then click the OK button. Your screen then uses the simpler Vista Basic user interface until you close Remote Assistance.

Receiving Assistance

Once the Remote Assistance session is established, Remote Assistance displays on the novice’s screen the Remote Assistance window , which provides basic information about what’s happening and control buttons.

Chatting with the Expert

You can chat with the expert via text. Click the Chat button to display a chat pane and ongoing status messages, type the message in the text box, and then press Enter or click the Send button.

No Remote Assistance Voice Chat in Vista

In Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Remote Assistance lets the expert and novice talk to each other. Talking can be helpful for sorting out problems, but the extra bandwidth the audio requires can make screen updating on the expert’s computer so slow that Remote Assistance is hard to use. Microsoft has removed the audio chat capability from Remote Assistance in Windows Vista.

If the novice or the expert is using Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, they’ll still have a Start Talk button and can click it, but it has no effect when their computer is connected to a computer running Windows Vista.

Giving the Expert Control of Your Computer

Assistance dialog box shown next. Select the Allow Helper to Respond to User Account Control Prompts check box if you want your helper to be able to click through User Account Control windows. Granting this authority makes providing the help much easier for your helper, but it also enables them to make critical changes to your computer - so you should not select this check box unless you completely trust your helper. Click the Yes button if you want to give your helper control of your computer. Otherwise, click the No button. You can regain control by pressing the Esc key, by pressing Alt+T, or by clicking the Stop Sharing button. If the expert leaves the Remote Assistance connection untouched for around an hour when they have control of your computer, Remote Assistance times out the connection and closes it. You’ll need to establish a new connection if you need further assistance.

Changing Remote Assistance Settings

As you saw a moment ago, Remote Assistance lets you press Esc to stop the expert from sharing control of your computer. Using Esc this way allows you a quick escape, but it prevents both you and the expert from using Esc to cancel dialog boxes or other features. It even prevents you from using Esc in any key combination. If you find this restriction awkward, you may want to disable this meaning of Esc. You can do this by clicking the Settings button and clearing the Use ESC Key to Stop Sharing Control check box in the Settings dialog box . This dialog box also contains three other settings:

• Save a Log of This Session Select this check box if you want to save a log a written record of the Remote Assistance session so that you can review it afterward if necessary. You’ll find this log in the Remote Assistance Logs folder in your Documents folder. Remote Assistance names the logs with the date and time. For example, the log file 20070212140806.xml was created on February 12, 2007, at 2:08.06 PM. You can double-click one of these files to open it in Internet Explorer.

• Bandwidth Usage Drag the slider up and down the Low–High axis to tell Remote Assistance how much bandwidth optimization to use:

No Bandwidth Optimization When the slider is at the High setting, Windows applies no bandwidth optimization, which gives the expert the most accurate picture of the novice’s desktop. Use this setting when the expert and novice are connecting over a network connection or a fast Internet connection.

Don’t Allow Full Window Drag When the slider is one notch down from the More setting, Windows doesn’t display the contents of windows when you drag them. Instead, you see only the window frame.

Turn Off Background When the slider is in its middle position, Windows also turns off the desktop background. Use this setting for medium-speed Internet connections for example, slow DSL or ISDN connections.

Use 8-Bit Color When the slider is at the Low setting, Windows reduces the color depth to 8 bits 256 colors. This setting degrades the display considerably but makes the display information much faster to transfer. Use this setting for dial-up or other slow connections.

• Allow Helper to See Credential Requests Click this button and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control to let your helper respond to User Account Control dialog boxes. To prevent the helper from responding to User Account Control dialog boxes again, click the Don’t Allow Helper to See Credential Requests button that replaces the Allow Helper to See Credential Requests button. Click the OK button when you’ve chosen the settings you want.

Disconnecting the Expert

To disconnect the expert, click the Disconnect button. Remote Assistance checks to make sure you want to do this, as shown next. Click the Yes button. Windows closes the connection and restores your Desktop to its full complement of colors if you or Windows chose to optimize performance for the expert. When the expert disconnects, Windows displays a Remote Assistance dialog box telling you so. Click the OK button to close this dialog box, and then close the Windows Remote Assistance window.

Canceling Waiting for Remote Assistance

If you fix the problem yourself, or decide to stop waiting for the expert to respond to your invitation, click the Cancel button. Windows displays the Are You Sure You Want to Stop Waiting? dialog box, shown here. Click the Yes button. Once you’ve done so, the expert will no longer be able to connect to your computer.

Reusing a Remote Assistance Invitation

Once you’ve created and used a Remote Assistance invitation, you can use it again from the How Do You Want to Invite Someone to Help You? screen . For security, you should always create a new password when reusing a Remote Assistance invitation, even though this means you’ll need to communicate the new password to the expert.

Providing Remote Assistance

You can provide Remote Assistance either by responding to a Remote Assistance invitation that a novice has sent or given to you or by offering assistance.

Responding to a Remote Assistance Invitation

When someone sends you a Remote Assistance invitation, you can accept it as follows:

• E-mail You receive an e-mail message with the Subject line “You have received a Remote Assistance invitation” or another subject if the sender has changed the canned text. The message comes with explanatory text augmenting whatever message text the requester entered, and an attached file with the name RATicket.MsRcIncident. Open the file by double-clicking it. Alternatively, in Windows Mail, click the Attachment icon, select the file from the drop-down menu, select the Open It button in the Mail Attachment dialog box, and click the OK button.

• Messenger You see a Conversation window telling you that the person “is inviting you to start using Remote Assistance.” Click the Accept link or press Alt+T to accept the invitation or click the Decline link or press Alt+D to decline it.

• File Double-click the invitation file to open it.

Windows prompts you for the password for the connection, as shown here. Type the password and press Enter or click the OK button. Windows displays a Remote Assistance window and shows the Attempting to Connect message as it prompts the novice to accept the connection. If the novice accepts it, the Remote Assistance session starts.

Troubleshooting: When Remote Assistance Can’t Connect through a Firewall

If Remote Assistance can’t connect through your firewall or Internet connection–sharing device, make sure that TCP port 3389 is open. You shouldn’t need to open this port manually on Windows Firewall, because Windows Firewall opens it automatically when Remote Assistance comes knocking. But you may need to open it or have a network administrator open it for you on other firewalls or Internet connection–sharing devices.

If you’re not able to establish a Remote Assistance connection from an invitation sent via e-mail or via a file drop, try establishing a connection via Messenger instead. The advantage of this method is that because Messenger already has a connection between the novice’s computer and the expert’s computer, Remote Assistance is better positioned to deal with firewall problems. If the expert’s computer doesn’t receive a Remote Assistance connection attempt from the novice’s computer within five seconds of the expert’s acceptance of the Messenger invitation, the expert’s computer sends what’s called aforward connect to the location specified in the invitation. Usually, this backup attempt at communication is enough to solve communications problems caused by firewalls and Internet connection–sharing devices.

Troubleshooting: “Remote Assistance Cannot Make the Connection” Error

The error message “Remote Assistance cannot make the connection” see the dialog box shown below, which occurs when the expert opens the invitation and tries to establish a connection with the novice, can mean any of the following:

• The novice’s Internet connection is down.

• The novice’s IP address has changed, and Remote Assistance has no way of identifying the computer’s new IP address. If both computers are on the same network, Remote Assistance can look up the computer from the name information contained in the Remote Assistance invitation, but it can’t do this across the Internet. If the expert can communicate with the novice via e-mail or chat, the expert can learn the novice’s new IP address, open the rcBuddy.MsRcIncident file in a text editor such as Notepad, and enter the new IP address to make the connection work. But in most cases it’s easier to have the novice resend the invitation from Help and Support Center. If the expert can communicate with the novice via Messenger, the novice can issue a new invitation in Messenger.

• The novice has closed the Remote Assistance window, which makes the Remote Assistance invitation expire.

• A firewall other than Windows Firewall is blocking the connection.

Offering Remote Assistance

If you think someone needs your help, you can offer it to them. The easiest way to offer Remote Assistance is via Messenger, but you can also offer Remote Assistance by starting a connection directly to the person’s computer.

Offering Remote Assistance via Messenger

You can offer Remote Assistance via Messenger in either of these ways:

• In an existing conversation, click the Show Menu button and choose Actions Offer Remote Assistance.

• In the main Messenger window, click the Show Menu button and choose Actions Offer Remote Assistance. In the Select a Contact window, select the contact to whom you want to offer Remote Assistance, and then click the OK button. Messenger opens a conversation window with your contact and offers them Remote Assistance.

If your contact clicks the Accept link, Windows prompts them to create a password for the connection. Windows then prompts you for the password. If you enter the correct password, the Remote Assistance session starts, and the novice has the choice of accepting the incoming connection.

Offering Remote Assistance via an IP Address or an Invitation

You can also offer Remote Assistance directly if you know the novice’s computer’s name or IP address or you have an existing Remote Assistance invitation from the novice. Follow these steps:

1. Choose Start All Programs Maintenance Windows Remote Assistance. Windows displays the Do You Want to Ask for or Offer Help? window.

2. Click the Offer to Help Someone button. Windows displays the Choose a Way to Connect to the Other Person’s Computer screen .

3.Choose how to connect:

• In the Type a Computer Name or IP Address text box, type the computer’s name or the IP address. If you don’t know the IP address, see the sidebar “Finding Out a Computer’s IP Address” for instructions on how to find it out. Click the Finish button.

• If you have an invitation file, click the Browse button, use the Open dialog box to navigate to and select the file, and then click the Open button. Click the Finish button.

• If you want to reuse a previous connection, click it in the Or Use Previous Connection list.

4. If Windows can connect to the novice’s computer, it prompts the novice to accept the connection. If you have started the Remote Assistance session by using the computer’s name or IP address, Windows prompts the novice to create a password for the connection, and then prompts you to enter the password.

Finding Out a Computer’s IP Address

To find out a computer’s IP address, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Network icon in the notification area and choose Network and Sharing Center from the shortcut menu. Windows opens a Network and Sharing Center window.

2. In the area that gives details on your network, click the View Status link. Windows displays a Status dialog box for the connection.

3. Click the Details button. Windows displays the Network Connection Details dialog box, as shown here. Look at the IP Address readout.

4. Click the Close button to close the Network Connection Details dialog box, click the Close button to close the Status dialog box, and then click the Close button the  button to close the Network Center window.