[Resolved] Remote assistance

[Arrow_Raider]

I work in a smaller company and would like to know how other people in IT departments remotely connect to users' computers to give assistance. We have configured a GPO that applies to the entire company in active directory that allows domain admins to initiate remote assistance offers without the user needing to send a request.

This has worked fine in XP, but we have recently been setting up our new computers with vista. This GPO still works in vista, but if we do something that brings up the UAC administrator credentials screen, the remote assistance pauses and we can't do anything until we have the user click cancel. On the dialog that the users are sent asking if they want to allow us to have control over their desktop, it says, "Allow (name) to respond to user account control prompts." If this is checked, the remote assistance isn't paused on UAC prompts. However, if the user checks this box, they are prompted with the UAC prompt for admin credentials which we of course can't give them. This is obnoxious.

I was wondering if there was something we could do to make this checkbox automatically be checked. I was also wondering how other people deal with this. Do you guys purchase third party software? Do you use remote assitance? With GPOs? With scripts?

[DeanMc]

Does this checkbox only have to be checked once? If so it would make sense to send some people around every PC to check the box rather than righting scripts or buying more software.

[Arrow_Raider]

It must be checked every time.

I don't really think there is going to be a way around this since this is a microsoft product we are talking about.
I am primarily interested in what other people use for remote aid programs.

[dclamp]

i am not sure if this will help you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...sktop_software

[penagate]

Apply a GPO that disables UAC?

[Arrow_Raider]

I have recently solved this issue. I created a service that uses WMI to check when the remote assistance application is launched. When it sees that has happened, it changes a value in the registry that controls whether or not to use secure desktop for UAC prompts. It switches this value so that the secure desktop feature is disabled and then when the remote assistance application is running. When remote assistance exits, it turns the feature back on.

(Secure desktop is that darkening of the screen when UAC prompts are shown. It disallows keyloggers and keyboard/mouse automation from having control of the UAC prompts.)