Quick Assist is a

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

feature that allows a user to view or control a remote Windows computer over a network or the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

to resolve issues without directly touching the unit.Get help remotely with Quick Assist in Windows 10
/ref>Overview of Remote Assistance in Windows XP
/ref>Windows XP Technical Overview
/ref> It is based on the

Remote Desktop Protocol Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection. The user employs RDP client software for this purpose, while t ...

(RDP). It is complemented by Get Help, a feature introduced in Windows 10 that enables the user to contact Microsoft directly but does not allow for remote desktoping or screen sharing. Before Quick Assist was introduced in Windows 10, Windows XP and later Windows versions offered a similar feature called Windows Remote Assistance.

Overview

Helpers offering remote assistance can open multiple simultaneous sessions—one for each remote computer. However, users seeking assistance from helpers can have only one remote assistance session waiting for a connection. Connect invitations can be sent to multiple recipients—any of which may connect. All subsequent connect attempts will be blocked until the first helper disconnects, after which another helper may connect. If the user disconnects the session, the remote assistance application terminates and no further connections are allowed. Quick Assist is installed by default on Windows clients, but is not available on

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 is the fifth version of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft and released as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became General av ...

servers. The name of the tool differs depending on Windows language; a search for "Quick Assist" in the Start menu will locate the tool regardless of the language settings. Quick Assist requests a code in order to match users to a session. This will allow the giver to access the computer of the receiver in Administrator mode while allowing the receiver to see the choices the giver made.

Connection

Quick Assist uses TCP

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

443 and communicates with the following hosts: The Quick Assist binary is located at "C:\Windows\System32\quickassist.exe"

History

The feature was first introduced in

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

as Remote Assistance and based on Remote Desktop technologies.How to use remote assistance in Windows XP
/ref> Remote Assistance in Windows XP is integrated into the Help and Support Centre UI and allows sending invitations to the support person by email,

Windows Messenger Windows Messenger is a discontinued instant messaging client included in Windows XP. Designed for use by both corporate and home users, it was originally created, in 2001, as a streamlined and integrated version of MSN Messenger. It was upgrade ...

or saving the invitation as a file and transferring the file across through other methods. The computer can be controlled by both, the support person connecting remotely as well as the one sending the invitation. Chat, audio-video conversations and file transfer are available. In

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

, Remote Assistance is upgraded with a standalone user interface and based on RDP 6 and

Windows Desktop Sharing Remote Desktop Services (RDS), known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and earlier, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to initiate and control an interactive session on a remote computer or virtual machine ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

. Two

systems administrator A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to ensu ...

s can simultaneously connect to a single computer. Remote sessions automatically reconnect after restarting the computer. It also supports session pausing, built-in diagnostics, chat,

file transfer File transfer is the transmission of a computer file through a communication channel from one computer system to another. Typically, file transfer is mediated by a communications protocol. In the history of computing, numerous file transfer protocol ...

and

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

-based logging. It reduces

bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...

requirements for low-speed connections.

NAT traversal Network address translation traversal is a computer networking technique of establishing and maintaining Internet protocol connections across gateways that implement network address translation (NAT). NAT traversal techniques are required for m ...

allows a session to be established even if the user is behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) device, for example, a router in a home network. Remote Assistance is configurable using

Group Policy Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems (including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2003+) that controls the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. G ...

and supports

command-line switch A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system ...

es so that custom shortcuts can be deployed. In

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

, Remote Assistance is based on RDP 7. An extra option to connect using

Peer Name Resolution Protocol Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) is a peer-to-peer protocol designed by Microsoft. PNRP enables dynamic name publication and resolution, and requires IPv6. PNRP was first mentioned during a presentation at a P2P conference in November 2001. It ...

is added, called ''Easy Connect'' if IPv6 connectivity is present. With ''Easy Connect'', only a password needs to be shared instead of an ''invitation file'', and two computers can establish a

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...

connection over the

Local Area Network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...

(LAN) or the Internet without a relay server. However, Windows Remote Assistance does not support file transfer and clipboard sharing in Windows 7. Remote Assistance is installed by default on Windows clients, but must be added manually on

servers. Remote assistance sessions may be initiated using the Windows Remote Assistance application available on the

Start menu The Start menu is a graphical user interface element used in Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 and in other operating systems. It provides a central launching point for computer programs and performing other tasks in the Windows shell. It is name ...

under All Apps → Maintenance or by invoking msra.exe from

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

. The original Remote Assistance is included on all releases of

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

as well, but since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, its Start menu shortcut is removed, effectively hiding it from the user. Instead, a new app called Quick Assist is added. It has mostly the same functionality and a similar user interface with buttons called ''Get assistance'' and ''Give assistance''. The design is like UWP apps. Unlike Remote Assistant, Quick Assist requires the support person to sign in using a

Microsoft account A Microsoft account or MSA (previously known as Microsoft Passport, .NET Passport, and Windows Live ID) is a single sign-on Microsoft user account for Microsoft customers to log in to Microsoft services (like Outlook.com), devices running on on ...

before dispensing help. In November 2021, Microsoft announced a more business-friendly version of Quick Assist, called Remote Help. While later versions of Windows 10 allowed users and technicians to authenticate against Azure Active Directory, this version includes new integrations such as: * UAC Elevation * Remote Assistance Sessions Reports * Roles Based Authentication (RBAC) * Management from Intune / the ability to launch from Intune * Limiting sessions within the organization (Azure AD Tenant) * Branding * Conditional Access * ADFS support While Remote Assistance establishes a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection to the end user's computer (requires TCP port 3389 to be opened on the client machine and the firewall/NAT/router behind which the machine is), Quick Assist is cloud-based and requires one outbound connection from the helper's PC to the cloud service/Microsoft server, and a separate connection from the cloud service to the machine of the person getting assistance. There are no ports opened on the client device's firewall.

Overview

Connection

History

Features comparison

See also

References

Further reading