Remote Assistance in a Corporate Environment

[Guest]

Our current environment is W2k and we are using a 3rd party remote control
software. We are migrating to XP and would like to use the built in remote
assistance feature of XP.

It looks like it will work except for one feature. There is no way to
switch users. Fast user switching is not available, by design, when the
computer is part of a domain. All of our users have limited privileges and
cannot install software or hardware. In order to do this a user with
administrator rights must log on.

The only way to do this, it seems, is with a remote desktop connection. We
are weary of doing this because in W2K terminal services was very flaky when
installing applications remotely. Ideally we want to use remote assistance
and be able to switch to the administrator account. We know that we can user
runas but, again, this does not always work in all situations.

What do we do? Do we have to stay with our current 3rd party solution?

 

[Guest]

Windows XP includes the 'run as' feature when you want to install an
application, so that you DONT have to logout a user to install something.
Just right click your file and select run as -- Remember this: Some items
won't show the run as, (like printers) so you have to hold down the shift
key, then right click. This will give you the run as option.
As for the remote desktop, I would stick with your 3rd party because the one
in windows is very limited.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response, but as you notice in my original post "We know that
we can use runas but, again, this does not always work in all situations."

For instance you can install printer software and drivers, but occasionally
it does not allow you to actually install the printer device itself.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Brian