Initiating Remote Assistance from the GUI

Initiating Remote Assistance sessions from the GUI can be done using the following methods:

• From the Start menu, click Start, point to All Programs, select Maintenance, and then select Windows Remote Assistance.
• Click Start and type assist in the Start menu search box. When Windows Remote Assistance appears in the search results under Programs, click it.

Either of these actions will open the initial Remote Assistance screen.

When this initial screen appears, you can do either of the following:

• Solicit Remote Assistance from someone by clicking the Invite Someone You Trust To Help You option, which displays the How Do You Want To Invite Your Trusted Helper? screen.
• Accept a Remote Assistance invitation from someone or offer Remote Assistance to someone by clicking the Help Someone Who Has Invited You option, which displays the Choose A Way To Connect To The Other Person's Computer screen.

The How Do You Want To Invite Your Trusted Helper? screen lets you select from the following methods for soliciting Remote Assistance:

• Save This Invitation To A File Selecting this option lets you save your Remote Assistance invitation file to a folder on your computer or to an available shared folder on the network.
• Use E-mail To Send An Invitation Selecting this option starts your e-mail client application, creates a new message, and attaches the invitation file to the message. Note that if you do not have an SMAPI-compatible e-mail client application on your computer, this option will be unavailable.
• Use Easy Connect Selecting this option creates and publishes your Remote Assistance invitation file to the cloud using PNRP and displays a 12-character password that you must communicate OOB to your Helper for him to accept your invitation. If, however, you previously used Easy Connect to establish a Remote Assistance session with the same Helper, the Helper can accept your invitation without any password required.

Note If the computer has IPv6 disabled or is behind a NAT router that blocks Teredo traffic, the Easy Connect option will be unavailable.

The Choose A Way To Connect To The Other Person's Computer screen lets you accept a Remote Assistance invitation from someone or offer Remote Assistance to someone. The following options are available on this screen for accepting a Remote Assistance invitation from someone:

• Use An Invitation File Selecting this option lets you browse your local file system or network share for the Remote Assistance invitation from someone who needs your help. You will need the password associated with the invitation, which must be provided OOB by the User who needs help.
• Use Easy Connect Selecting this option lets you browse the PNRP cloud for the Remote Assistance invitation from someone who needs your help. The first time you use Easy Connect to help this individual, you will need the password associated with the invitation, which must be provided OOB by the User who needs help. For subsequent times that you use Easy Connect to help this individual, the password is not required.