Skip to main content

How to configure Group Policy to allow you to offer Remote Assistance

By

Let’s face it, no matter how hard you try, it is sometimes best if you just do it yourself. In the tech support world, we have to often remind ourselves that the talents of our users is not in IT and we need to do more than just talk someone through a problem. Remote Assistance in Windows allows you to both see and interact with the end users’ desktop while they are still logged in.

The standard set up of Remote Assistance is for the user to request assistance. This can be an issue for many users as it adds to the stress of the situation. Configuring your environment to allow you help desk to offer remote assistance will increase the speed of the support while at the same time decreasing the stress of the problem.

To turn on the ability to offer remote assistance, configure this GPO:

Computer Configuration / Policies / Administrative Templates / System / Remote Assistance / Configure Offer Remote Assistance

Set this policy to Enabled.

Scope this GPO to apply to your domain. You may also will want to add your tech support group to the Remote Users Group on each client computers.

To offer Remote Assistance from Windows 8, go to the Start screen.

Type MSRA.exe /offerra. This window appears.

clip_image001[5]

Type the name or IP address of the client that you want to offer assistance to.

The user receiving the assistance will get a request to approve to assistance.

clip_image002[4]

Once the user clicks Yes, the remote assistance session is established.

The expert still needs to request control of the session. This allows the end user maintain control of the session.

clip_image003[4]

To further customize the users remote assistance experience, you can also configure custom messages. This way the user knows that the offer came from company tech support and not some random piece of malware.

Computer Configuration / Policies / Administrative Templates / System / Remote Assistance / Customize Warning Messages

clip_image005[5]

Once these GPOs are deployed to your clients, they will know the support session came from you.

clip_image006[4]

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to list all the AD LDS instances on a server

By
AD LDS allows you to provide directory services to applications that are free of the confines of Active Directory.  To list all the AD LDS instances on a server, follow this procedure: Log into the server in question Open a command prompt. Type dsdbutil and press Enter Type List Instances and press Enter . You will receive a list of the instance name, both the LDAP and SSL port numbers, the location of the database, and its status.
Post a Comment
Read more

How to run GPResult on a remote client with PowerShell

By
In the past, to run the GPResult command, you would need to either physically visit this client, have the user do it, or use and RDP connection.  In all cases, this will disrupt the user.  First, you need PowerShell remoting enabled on the target machine.  You can do this via Group Policy . Open PowerShell and type this command. Invoke-Command –ScriptBlock {GPResult /r} –ComputerName <ComputerName> Replace <ComputerName> with the name of the target.  Remember, the target needs to be online and accessible to you.
Post a Comment
Read more

Error icon when creating a GPO Preference drive map

By
You may not have an error at all.  Take a look at the drive mapping below. The red triangle is what threw us off.  It is not an error.  It is simply a color representation of the Replace option of the Action field in the properties of the drive mappings. Create action This give you a green triangle. The Create action creates a new mapped drive for users. Replace Action The Replace action gives you a red triangle.  This action will delete and recreate mapped drives for users. The net result of the Replace action is to overwrite all existing settings associated with the mapped drive. If the drive mapping does not exist, then the Replace action creates a new drive mapping. Update Action The Update action will have a yellow triangle. Update will modify settings of an existing mapped drive for users. This action differs from Replace in that it only updates settings defined within the preference item. All other settings remain as configured on the ma...
1 comment
Read more