The Technician is prompted to choose either “View Screen” or “Take Full Control”.The end user enters the one-time access code, and clicks “Share Screen”.Technician provides the one-time access code to the user: By voice (over the phone), by email, Twitter DM, Facebook Messenger, SMS text, carrier pidgeon, or crackheads on stolen bicycles who need to earn some extra cash.Technician provides credentials to authenticate to the organization.Technician clicks “Assist another person”.The technician opens Quick Assist (Win key + “Quick” and select the app).The end user needs to be present (and logged on) to the target computer.Both the end user and the IT technician need machines with an Internet connection.It’s also fairly simple to use, and only requires the following conditions in order to use it: It requires the end user to be at their computer and logged on. Quick Assist is not a “headless”, or unattended, remote connection solution. This jaw-jacking mind spewage however is focused on Quick Assist, so let’s get in and go for a ride. But there is (are), and even if you opt out of using Quick Assist, there are other free tools available which may do what you need. Like other customers I’ve spoken with, they had the impression that there’s really no other alternative. This came up during a call with a customer who uses Intune and they asked about the TeamViewer feature. Since Windows 10 1709, Microsoft added another alternative to Remote Assistance, and I’m surprised how many sysadmins have never heard of it. Many of them also impose feature limits unless you pay for the “professional”, “enterprise” or “premium” edition, etc. Many are of them are fine and do a great job. But many organizations never gave it much attention, and instead skipped right over it to third-party products like TeamViewer, LogMeIn, VNC, and others.

For years, with earlier Windows versions, we had Remote Assistance. Troubleshooting and assisting remote computer users has always been a challenge.

Quick assist