One of the features I like most about Windows XP (and SBS 2003) is Remote Assistance. In particular, I love being able to offer unsolicited remote assistance to my users (i.e. without them initiating the RA session, this way the user only has to click “ok” on the RA popup). This translates on helping users faster, not to mention that you can enjoy margaritas from the confort of your home while you help users. ow that I think about it… those “Earn $$$ while sitting in front of your PC at home” scams on the internet might be true after all.
Anyway, going back to the point… since I use this feature a lot and its somewhat hidden on XP (not so much in SBS) I thought it would be a good idea to create a link in my desktop (and/or the server desktop) to offer RA to users in distress. To do this, simply create a shortcut that points to:
%windir%\explorer.exe “hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm”
Now, I only have to connect to the site, double click there and type the address (talk about being lazy!). 🙂
Happy RA-ing!
VERY useful, I always think it would be nice to use this tool as I have done so in the past to help users. But, I can never find the application while I’m on the phone with a user because it is so hidden.
Thx for the help
I Think there is a typo above. Explorer.exe should be Iexplore. For example:
"%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore" hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm
In fact, just past the hcp in your IE browser:
hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm
Remember, you need port 3389/tcp open at your firewall. For reference, see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301527
Actually, both of them work. Explorer is really "Windows Explorer" while IExplore is "Internet Explorer" since both are the same thing (thanks to MS infinite wisdom) then both work.
The next logical step would be to make it autopopulate the computer name or tcp/ip address. Specifically,
I was thinking that when you go into Network Places and see all the computer names. You could right click
on the name and it would offer the option of remote assistance. This is turn would automatically start remote
assistance on the remote machine. This option is available in Windows Messenger when you want to offer assistance
to a buddy over the internet. Has anyone tried doing this for Network places?
I am interested in placing a shortcut on users’ desktops so they can request remote assistance automatically without having to go through a bunch of technical questions. My users are generally foolish and this would truly be the only way to truly implement this. The shortcut you have provided above brings up the remote assistance for helping a user on a local area network. I would like it to open up some form of remote assitance that can work outside the LAN so that I can assist offsite workers. Please let me know if anyone could help me. Thanks.
rcimbly.exe -launchra
it only brings up the screen without having to go through the help menu.
it would be nice to have something that would just prompt for an email address to request help.
Any way to pass target PC name or IP as a parameter within the shortcut?
That Request Remote assistance shortcut should be %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\rcimlby.exe -LaunchRA
That’s the "Request Remote assistance" thingy… I was talking about offering it without someone requesting it (which is really useful to help people out).
I have figured out how to fully automate remote assistance with a few workarounds, including a simple script that auto-populates the computer name field and clicks the ‘Connect’ button as well.
You can use Visual Basic Scripting to accomplish the work. Here’s an example:
‘DECLARING VARIABLES
Dim objShell
Dim WshShell
Dim vString
‘INITIALIZE VARIABLE VALUES
set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
vString = "COMPUTERNAMEHERE"
‘SENDS KEYSTROKES TO START PERSONNEL PROGRAM
objShell.SendKeys "^{ESC}"
WScript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
WScript.Sleep 10000
objShell.SendKeys vString ‘SEND THE VARIABLE VALUE, INCLUDING DATE
WScript.Sleep 500
WScript.Quit
In addition to the above, you have a shortcut in the Start-Menu that opens the ‘Offer Remote Assistance’ screen–should be 11th position upward from the Start button itself. You can adjust the delay time in the above script so it works faster too. The following website has some information about automating the remote computer’s connection too–so the user doesn’t have to accept a request:
http://www.anetforums.com/posts.aspx?ThreadIndex=3115
Good luck,
Todd Shillam
tshillam@comcast.net
This walked the menu but did not open the Remote Assistance. And how do I run this on someone’s remote pc? LOL!
Cool, but useless…
———————
‘DECLARING VARIABLES
Dim objShell
Dim WshShell
Dim vString
‘INITIALIZE VARIABLE VALUES
set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
vString = "COMPUTERNAMEHERE"
‘SENDS KEYSTROKES TO START PERSONNEL PROGRAM
objShell.SendKeys "^{ESC}"
WScript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{UP}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
WScript.Sleep 10000
objShell.SendKeys vString ‘SEND THE VARIABLE VALUE, INCLUDING DATE
WScript.Sleep 500
WScript.Quit
———————
Another way of creating this shortcut is just right click on your desktop and go to "New" –> "Shortcut". Enter "hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm" (without qoutes "") into the location of the item box and hit next. Insert a name and finish it. If needed go to \WINDOWS\system32 and choose rcimlby.exe if you want the typical remote assistance icon. Just thought i’d add another way to do this.
i have the ports switched on some of my machines for remote desktop…how can i get around this and a router firewall to set up remote assistance for remote clients
FYI IE7 Beta seems to break offer remote assistance. If I revert back to IE6 everything works fine. Anyone else see this?
I tried this method but it failed for me. I can access RA if the host PC manaully makes an invite so I know this is possible. When I doubleclick the shortcut I am prompted for an IP address which I enter. I get the following error message, “Access to the requested resource as been disabled by your administrator.”
Ideas?
I have two windows accounts, one for email and standard everyday tasks and I have an admin account which is set up as admin on all other machines. I want to be able login to my system with standard account and do a “run as” on the short cut to use my admin account. I don’t want to log out of my machine and log in as admin everytime I need to offer assistance. When I try run as, the window never opens. Anyone have any ideas? Is this possible?
Hi Every time i try to launch this i get an error message saying remote assistance failed please try again.
I initially tried following this Microsoft article by applying group policy to allow certain people to offer assistance and opening up port 135 through the firewall.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=300546
Any Help is appreciated
You need to use group policy to deploy the “offer remote assistance” (Unsolicited) option. Here are the GP settings: Under Computer/admin template/system/remote assistance enable offer remote assistance and add users or groups to the list of helpers.
Then under Computer/admin temp/network/network connections/windows firewall/domain profile add these authorized apps as is.
%systemroot%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\helpctr.exe:*:enabled:helpctr.exe
%systemroot%\system32\sessmgr.exe:*:enabled:Remote Assistance
then in the same location enable allow remote desktop exception with * if you don’t care about what ip ranges or specify.
Run gpupdate on client machine or when they reboot all should be working for unsolicited RA they just have to click yes to allow.
Any way to append a parameter to the Remote Assistance URL in order to connect to a specific workstation?
The url is: “hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm”
Thanks, Kathy
kkerhing@excite.com
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Hi! Nice site!
Open your host machines registry (the one you are connecting to), go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp
Find the “PortNumber” subkey and notice the value of 00000D3D, hex for (3389). Modify the port number in Hex and save the new value.
3389 is the default Port.
Hi,
this is very cool to offer a remote support.
I have a question:
Do we can use a easy way to add the IP as a parameter？
for example
%windir%\explorer.exe “hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm ?ipaddress=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx”
Thanks,
my email yufeixiaoyu at hotmail.com
Is it possible to create a shortcut for viewing only?
Hey Javier,
I made hacked the for Unsolicitedrcui.htm to allow the passing of workstation and username variables. You may find it helpful.
(here’s hoping the URL works)
http://blog.netnerds.net/2006/12/ra-pass-workstation-and-username-parameters-to-offer-remote-assistance/
Interesting stuff. I’m wanting to offer my users a short cut on there desktop that when clicked it will open a request for help on my screen….is this possable as all of my users are on remote sites behind NAT….?
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LOL, I laughed when I ran that script above. Quite funny!
Cool}Cool!
Interesting…
interesting
interesting
so what it I want to offer remote assistance to a user on a client’s domain knowing his domain IP or server RDP name and the client computer name? is that possible? Basically tuneling through the server?
Cool}Cool!
Interesting…
Do you know how to do it on Vista?
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Is there a way we can execute this in conjunction with the /runas as command
i tried
%windir%\system32\runas.exe /user:domain\username /savecred “hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/Unsolicitedrcui.htm”
but no go
Wow! Another prime example of Microsoft stupidity!
Thanks for this — I have spent way too much time trying to figure out a simple way to make a shortcut like this.
I know its to late to answer but I took a week to get this working , just want to spare someone that time .
To create through gpo , computer config /administrative template/network/network connections/windows firewall/domain profile .
define program exception enable add
* %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\Sessmgr.exe:*:Enabled:Remote Assistance
* %WINDIR%\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\Helpsvc.exe:*:Enabled:Offer Remote Assistance
* %WINDIR%\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\Helpctr.exe:*:Enabled:Remote Assistance – Windows Messenger and Voice
allow file and print.. enabled
allow remote desktop .. enabled
define port exceptions
135:TCP:*:Enabled:Offer Remote Assistance
Then go to computer config/administrative temp/system/remote assistance
solicited disabled ( on few webpages it did say enabled)
Offer remote assistance enabled
Helpers domain_name\Group_name
example domain_name\Domain Admins
Last go to computer config / admininstrative temp/windows component/terminal service
allow users to connect remotely to terminal services enabled.
That was to create GPO
Here is a batch file that worked for me
netsh firewall set opmode ENABLE ENABLE
netsh firewall set service FILEANDPRINT ENABLE ALL
netsh firewall set service REMOTEDESKTOP ENABLE ALL
netsh firewall add portopening TCP 135 REMOTEADMIN ENABLE ALL
netsh firewall add allowedprogram program=c:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\Helpctr\binaries\Helpsvc.exe name=”Offer Remote Assistance”
netsh firewall add allowedprogram program=c:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\Helpctr\binaries\Helpctr.exe name=”Remote3″
netsh firewall set notifications ENABLE
pause
I researched or this info and took me a week to get it working , only tried it on a domain don’t know if it will work in workgroup , Hope I could help
here you’ll find some screenshots and a tutorial
http://www.cloudtec.ch/blog/tech/remote-assistance-windows7-kostenlos-fernwartung.html
You rock
how to create that sortcut?????????????????
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