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Windows Intune Remote Assistance Dropped For Windows 8

Remote Assistance is a great feature in Windows Intune; it’s a feature that a lot of companies are excited about. A user can go to the self-service portal and choose to allow a service technician to access their machine.
Sounds great, unless you run Windows 8.
Microsoft Intune D no longer supports Windows 8 Remote Assistance. However, it still supports other versions of Windows.
Another caveat to be aware of if you are using the Intune Console on a Windows 8 machine and trying to support a user on a Windows 7 machine, Remote Assistance will not work.
It appears that Microsoft was not happy with the quality of experience that the Windows 8 users were experiencing.
As sad as this news is, there are a few options to get around this, but may be a bit of an inconvenience. For one, you can use a third party tool such as LogMeIn or you can use the built-in Remote Assistance in Windows 8.
Many companies are choosing to use the Built in Remote Assistance. You can do this by going to:
1. c:\windows\system32\msra.exe and create a desktop shortcut for the users.
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2. If you want to Remote Assist your users, have them click on the desktop shortcut.
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3. There are three options available for this: I will choose Use email to send an invitation.
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4. Enter the person who is supporting you in the email and send it on to them.
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5. You will receive a code that you and the person helping you will need.
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6. Once allowed you will get the option of sharing your screen, chatting or pausing the connection.
Another option, if you want to connect to a users computer without asking for permission to access it, you can go to a command prompt type msra.exe/offerra and a screen will open where you can connect with IP address or computer name.
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So as you can see all is not lost; there are still options. I would suspect that Microsoft will add back the Remote Assistance in a future release of Intune.
 

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Robert Kuchera

Lead Microsoft Infrastructure Consultant

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