Providing Expertise via Remote Assistance in Windows XP
Published: June 4, 2001
By Sharon Crawford
Editor's note: Remote Assistance in Windows® XP lets you connect over the Internet and remotely control another computer running Windows XP, so you can help friends and family diagnose and fix computer problems. Expert Zone columnist and independent contributor Sharon Crawford uses Remote Assistance to help relatives in far away places.
The dictionary defines an expert as a person possessing a "high level of skill" or a "specialist." That may be true for firefighters and brain surgeons, but in the world of computers, you're an expert if you've had your computer three weeks longer than the person seeking your expert help.
As someone who's been banging away on computers for a decade, I'm often called by distraught relatives or neighbors who "have a problem" with a computer. Almost as often, I'm the one looking for expert help—calling software companies or hardware makers or someone who's been banging away on computers for a decade plus three weeks.
When neighbors are seeking help from me, I can easily cross the street or trot down the block to see the offending machine. But my relatives live in far-flung places—from Nevada to Nova Scotia—so visiting the guilty computer isn't usually an option. The end result is usually an excessively long telephone call ending with one or both of the parties being seriously exasperated. Sometimes the problem is solved; sometimes it's not. The central problem always boils down to the inability of the person doing the helping to see what's actually happening on the other person's screen. When frustrated, computer users are (and I include myself in this) woefully inadequate at describing the situation with any degree of completeness.
Enter Remote Assistance
At last, a truly simple and useful tool has come along in the form of Remote Assistance in Windows XP. With Remote Assistance, you (or I) can allow a trusted "expert" to see exactly what's happening with the troubled computer and fix anything fixable. This is a gift from heaven, as far as I'm concerned, because I'm grateful for anything that can help me to help my adorable but non-techie Aunt Bijoux and less adorable, and even less techie, cousin Alfie.
Here's how you set up Remote Assistance—and it's best to do a practice session, if possible, before you run into trouble down the road and your ears come to emit small wisps of steam
Issuing an Invitation
Because you don't want just anyone messing with your system, when you want help, you first must issue an invitation to the prospective helper. The invitation can be sent by e-mail or by Windows Messenger. Using e-mail, you start by opening Help and Support on the Start menu. Under Support, choose Remote Assistance.
Follow the prompts to the Send an Invitation screen. An e-mail invitation can be sent to anyone who has e-mail. The Windows Messenger invitation can be sent to anyone on your established buddy list.
Tip: If you ask for assistance from the same person on a regular basis, select Save the Invitation as a File. Then, when you next need help, just attach the file to an e-mail message and save a few steps.
Using e-mail, my cousin Alfie provides the usual helpful information:
Next, security settings for the invitation are set and the invitation is sent. Now, when Alfie sends me an invitation, he doesn't usually password protect it (I never said he was bright), but you should.
If you're being invited to help, you will receive the e-mail invitation that looks like this:
When I double-click the mail attachment, I'm asked if I want to help out Alfie by making the connection (I'm also told when the invitation expires). I accept, and Alfie's notified:
We chat for a while and as soon as we can sort of narrow down the problem, I click the Take Control button, Alfie agrees to let me take control.
Tip: Even though I have control of his computer, Alfie can still use his mouse and keyboard as usual. This is handy in case I want him to recreate the sequence of steps that resulted in the problem.
Now I can look at the mail settings that are causing him grief and fix them. If both ends of the connection have microphones and sound cards, we can talk at the same time.
Using Windows Messenger
Starting Remote Assistance using Windows Messenger is even easier. My Auntie Bijoux just starts Windows Messenger, clicks the Tools menu, and selects Send An Invitation. The invitation pops up, on my desktop, and I click Accept.
Last week, I helped her to make her computer look more familiar (using the Windows Classic desktop) and to make the screen fonts a bit larger.
Remote advantages
In addition to letting me see other desktops, Remote Assistance is great when I'm the one in trouble. We all know how Help Desk people can be. They make you go through all the steps you've already tried, and then have you do the computer equivalent of hopping on one foot while swinging a live chicken over your head. With Remote Assistance, you can skip all that. The Help Desk people can connect right to your computer and see for themselves what's going on and fix it. Need a file of some kind—a driver, a patch—to cure the problem? The Help Desk technician clicks Send File and you receive it immediately.
Remote Assistance tips
| • | If you're on a corporate network, check with the network administrator before using Remote Assistance. |
| • | For differences in screen size, click Scale to Window or Actual Size, to get a workable screen area. |
| • | When you take control of someone else's computer, you're using their settings. That means if they're using a left-handed mouse, your mouse buttons will be reversed as long as you're working "inside" their machine. |
Sharon Crawford is a former editor now engaged in writing books and magazine articles. Since 1993, she has written or co-written two dozen books on computer topics. Her books include Windows 2000 Pro: The Missing Manual, Windows 98: No Experience Required, and Windows 2000 Professional for Dummies (with Andy Rathbone).
