Get and Give Remote Assistance with Quick Assist app in Windows 10  

Brink said:

Hello Steve,

The Quick Assist app doesn't use these settings. The remote assistance is handled within the app itself instead.

It's quite useful having just tried it. However, is there a security loophole here since the app overrides the remote access settings and there is no way to disable the app?

3. If prompted, you will need to sign in to the Quick Assist app with your Microsoft account.

Do both users have to be signed into a Microsoft account or only the one providing assistance?

This security code will expire in 10 minutes, so be sure to send it to the person getting assistance and connect before it expires. If the code expires, you will need to start over to generate a new code to use.

While I understand the need for security, it would be nice if this were longer. I'll be working with a handicapped friend who is very slow on the keyboard and email is our only way of communicating. It might take a couple of tries to get him through all the steps on his end in 10 minutes.

But this should be very helpful for me to tune his Win 10 pc, especially now that we have the Coronavirus stay-at-home restrictions. Thank you for posting it.

I've provided computer assistance to numerous folks who are in isolation due to COVID-19 and can confirm that only the person giving assistance needs to have a Microsoft account. All that's needed by those receiving assistance is Windows 10 and an installation that works with Quick Assist. I have yet to determine why some Windows 10 installations will work fine with Quick Assist while others fail to load the utility (endless spinning dots).

My scenario:
I have two desktops each with a monitor each. But the secondary one is out of my line of sight and my eyes are not good enough to focus on both without me bodily moving to get closer to the secondary.
Setting up Quick Assist works fine but it is a bit awkward moving back and forth to set it up.
Once that is done then I can sit still in the proper viewing position for the primary monitor and switch between the computers without having to move.

My idea:
I can boot the secondary computer without seeing its monitor as it is configured to signin without password.
Could I add the Quick Assist configuration so that it is one of the various programmes that open during that boot process?
Then I can open the secondary desktop on my primary monitor without needing to see the secondary monitor at all!

Obviously I am not dumb as I have asked <joke>

Tony

Note - I have Mouse Without Borders on all computers so can use the single keyboard and mouse from my normal seated. position. Its just the secondary monitor that is difficult to cope with.

Brink said:

Please let us know how it goes, and if you have any questions.

I set it up as instructed in the first (RDC) tutorial you list and it worked. Two small comments - the reference to getting to System on the host is not the best. On Win 10 it is easier to use the Control Panel link. Also, when I connected I received a demand for password. Fair enough, but I had to experiment to find WHICH password was meant! (The host.) Lastly, when connected I got a surprise as the host monitor went blank and then came up with a Welcome screen. There is no indication that anything needs to be done! I took the cowards way out and did nothing!

More later
Tony

- - - Updated - - -

Snugglebugs said:

More later
Tony

As promised - having got it all working I shut down both computers and then unplugged the secondary monitor from the host desktop and plugged it back into the primary desktop (client) where it was normally in use as Display number 1 on my multi display setup. (note that I wanted it to be number 2, but the OS settings page disagreed!)

Then booted both desktops; waited while the host caught up (no monitor so just watched the HD light stop flashing) then used the RDC window on the client to connect. That worked without problem so now I had the host desktop screen sitting on the window of Display 2. Display 1 just showed an empty desktop for the client.

Note - I have a wireless keyboard and mouse with the Unifying receiver plugged in to the Client.
First, remember that with the multi-display setup I can move the cursor to either display.
Second, I have Mouse Without Borders configured on all my computers. Thus I can use the cursor on any computer via that.

Finally, I can use the multi display setup to grab and slide the host desktop from the client's main display to its secondary display. Now I had the client desktop on display 2 and the host desktop on display 1. Thus from my single mouse and keyboard, with both host and client desktops showing on individual display monitors, I can have control over either without closing either window. And, at any time I can slide the host window back onto the primary monitor into full and focused view right in front of me. Exactly what I first asked about

Now this raises an interesting philosophical question I hadn't thought about. Namely, who or what owns the cursor?
Is it the multi display configuration?
Or RDC on the client as it has control over the host?
Or the MWB as the window on Display1 is actually that of the host?
(At the moment I refuse to think about the USB mouse on the host!)

This may appear not to matter, but consider this:
on Display 1 is the taskbar of the client. Also, there is the taskbar of the host as part of the window I slid across!
Which raises an interesting point - If I want to click on the Win button of one and not the other, how do I know which one is actually visible? From initial experiments it seems that only one button is actually visible and it varies as to which one it is at any given moment.

The only way I have been able to check this so far is that the list of programmes that appear shows one that is on the host but not on the client. Rather a slooow way of checking.

Tony