Why Windows 10 Remote Assistance is Not Working
Hello and welcome, my fellow tele-toilers and anyone just scrolling by!
Today’s HelpWire blog is kind of a logical follow-up to our previous big discussion of Windows 10 Remote Assistance app in general, i.a. the problems, largely known since Win XP. Guess, it makes sense to dwell more on the most common rubs and pitfalls apt to ambush any remote support user.
Wheels up, we’re blasting off!
And now, let’s have a better grip of Windows 10 remote assistance use patterns, and finally answer that ever-nagging question: ‘where can i find remote assistance in Windows 10?’
Buckle up and off we go!
The perpetual problems with invitation letters
As you may know, invitation emails to some remote helper are in use since Win XP as a form of RA requests. And I’m fairly sure that there is a lichyard of those emails lost-to-never-be-found in the murky depths of the dustiest server.
The solution is pretty obvious: don't send requests via emails. It’s Win10 after all, use its features to the full. QuickAssist is much more advanced, only requires a valid Microsoft account and encrypts all the data passing back and through during the RDP connections. If that’s a no-go for some reason (e.g. you need help with one of those computers with lots of sensitive data), save the invitation file to a protected cloud drive then tell your helper where to find it (emphasis on protected). And the first chance you get to opt out of the standard system utilities and get an app operating via TCP— do it!
Some hitch in the settings
One of the basic rules in IT says: if something isn’t working right (or at all) — go check the settings. And the first thing to check in case Windows Remote Assistance is not working is whether or not remote access is enabled on particular computers.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Press Win+Pause(Break) to open the Win10 System window. Then click Remote settings on the left-hand pane:
2. Make sure that ‘Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer’ checkbox in System Properties is ticked:
Not that different from enabling remote assistance in Windows 7, isn’t it? Well, that wouldn’t be much of a help if you’ve never known how to enable remote assistance in Windows 7 in the first place. But still, good to know that some things just stay the same no matter what.
If you fail to access someone else’s PC, get them to follow these instructions too. Nine times out of ten that will settle the issue straight away.
Firewall has thrown a roadblock
Dealing with Windows Firewall is easy. You don’t even need Administrator account to change its properties.To make sure there is no unwanted ports blocking here, type ‘firewall’ into the Cortana search box and pick the ‘Allow an app through Windows Firewall’ from the left-hand pane:
Make sure these three checkboxes are ticked:
But if you’re using a third-party firewall, there is no way to change its settings without administrator privileges. And even if you have those, it may be required to change a Hkey or two in the system registry and the registry is no place to mass around. Even a one-off botched Hkey can do irreparable wrong to the whole OS. So no such instructions from me here, thank you kindly. Instead of force-opening your ports, get a handy RA tool that’s operating over TCP.
msra.exe just won’t connect to remote PC
The most common reason is that the ‘Helpers’ parameter isn’t configured like it should be.
Go to Computer Configuration→Administrative Templates→System→Remote Assistance→Configure Offer Remote Assistance and use the ‘gpupdate /force’ forcefully update group policy.
Once you’ve done with that, restart the system and type msra.exe into the Command Prompt to check the result.
Ok, now that’ll be all for today. Don’t hesitate to click my links for a better grasp on the matter, stay safe and see ya all in the next blogs.