Forum Discussion
Nathan_Pfeifer
Microsoft
Apr 27, 2022Remote assistance with Quick Assist is changing
Hi Insiders! Russell Mosier and Bianca Taylor, from the Experiences + Devices team are excited to share an upcoming change to their remote assistance app, Quick Assist.
Remote assistance with Quick Assist
Quick Assist is an app in Windows 10 and Windows 11 that enables you to receive or provide assistance with your PC over a remote connection. The current built-in Quick Assist app is reaching end of service.
To keep your remote assistance sessions secure, you will need to download the new Quick Assist from the Microsoft Store.
How it works
- Select Start > Microsoft Store.
- In the Microsoft Store window, type Quick Assist in the Search box.
- Click Quick Assist in the list, and then click the Get button.
Find out the rest here in the blog post!
Cheers,
Nathan
Office Insider Community Manager
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- ShawnZ1HBrass Contributor
here we go again: Quick-Assist effectively unusable:
"Software that's required for Quick Assist couldn't be installed, Error 1002" Run-As doesn't work.
Of course, we are running as StandardUser, LocalAccount for security and privacy reasons.
As helper, I can run Quick-Assist only if I sign-in to Windows as an Administrator, but several users needing help have faced same error and have no remedy running as a Standard User.
Even most third party publishers have installers that know enough to recognize non-admin user and request privilege elevation. Why not Microsoft Quick-Assist?
We have lots of small business clients completely UNINTERESTED in M$ cloud.
Further, best practice and standard operating procedure on every other OS is to run as a Standard-User, so that Admin functions are done deliberately, rather than accidentally. If you run as an Administrator, UAC will sometimes, but not always, warn that you are using elevated privileges. The fact that Edge (a web browser) can and does bypass UAC prompts is reason enough to run as Standard User. - ShawnZ1HBrass Contributor
TWO YEARS Later: here we go again:
I told my 80+ y.o. father he should finally accept the in-place upgrade from Windows 10 to 11.
I frequently support him remotely using Quick-Assist, so obviously it's installed on Windows 10.
Post upgrade to Windows 11, he calls me.
He clicks the Quick-Assist shortcut pinned to the TaskBar: it throws an error for failing to find the app. So we try Win+CTRL+Q. NOPE! Search the start menu: Because Microsoft default is to return Web results for every search, he gets so many answers as to make it dangerous for him to select one. I tell him to open the Microsoft Store directly: same result: Tons of results he is unable to parse w/o me seeing his screen to help him select. Finally I search the Microsoft Store myself and email him a URL. Walk him through downloading, finding Downloads, running/installing/opening Quick-Assist.
LITERALLY TWENTY-ONE Minutes to make a Quick-Assist connection.
HOW Damned difficult would it have been for Windows 11 to recognize Quick-Assist was installed and make sure it was still installed after upgrade.
ps: so we get to his question: how do I switch users?
OMG: Windows 11 improved the start menu by putting the signed-in user front and center (er bottom left, just above Start), with an actual name rather than a cryptic generic avatar ... BUT then they go and HIDE 'sign-out' and 'switch-user' under a 'more' button. WTF. For home users sharing a computer Sign-out / Switch User are FAR more likely to be used than looking at their microsoft account (in our case they are local accounts). If it wasn't for about (2) apps he uses, he would already be on Linux.- IT_NickBrass Contributor
"LITERALLY TWENTY-ONE Minutes to make a Quick-Assist connection."
your comments are 100 percent accurate, the dangerous default web search is lethal for the older generation and the less IT literate (but hey ho web results first mean they can slide in some paid adverts. The fact it might take them to a dodgy lookalike trojan with a backdoor in it is not their problem right?) Equally your comment about the hidden "sign out" and "switch user" is also very relevant. Took me a minute or two to realise that my remote user on the phone wasn't blind and the option to sign out was genuinely not on screen.
We have a domain and keep trying to tie it down security wise because you know, ransomware is a thing and current cyberwarfare threat levels are just a tad high. QED users are not allowed to install anything and almost everything requires elevation. Guess what, GPO deployment of QuickAssist via Power Shell script fails because it runs in the user context. Microsoft has a workaround though, pay them thousands of dollars extra per year for a licence tier that includes Intune of course. I begin to suspect this is not accidental but a long standing pattern. MicroShaft tests new features on the users for free (unpaid beta testing), and once it refines them (release candidate) it removes them from the "free" level to put them behind a paywall of a higher licence tier. You might be forgiven for suspecting the lack of an MSI is a deliberate "feature" of the new QA experience. 😞
- meveringhamCopper ContributorAnd what if the Admin or their users cannot log into the Microsoft store? Say for example, GCC users. Once again, GCC users are screwed, and have to pay extra for a third-party solution.
- Maddog351Copper ContributorQuick Assist has become junk software - thanks Microsoft.
- ScottyJNCopper ContributorThe latest Windows Insider builds include Quick Assist as a built in app. Did this mean all our problems will soon be resolved?
- scott-ccmCopper ContributorI just can't believe how many times this screen sharing thing needs to be updated. Could you not build in an update within app. Asking people to figure out how to reinstall it EVERYTIME you update is the most annoying task I've ever seen in my entire life!!!!!
- MichaelfireCopper Contributor
Nathan_Pfeifer Quick Assist has been failing for weeks now. I manage a corporate Microsoft Ads account and need technical assistance, but Microsoft Support is REQUIRED to use Quick Assist now, which is always broken when the Microsoft tech calls. I've been waiting on this support ticket for weeks now, with no help, because Microsoft will not allow screen sharing by any other means (not even Microsoft Teams!), and Quick Assist is constantly broken. Quick Assist, in my professional estimation, is useless, and Microsoft Support has been decimated.
- JamesMBrass ContributorNow there is echo.
And network based UAC prompt when joining a new session.
I'm flabbergasted about this one. No testing at all eh?- FrankPanaroCopper Contributor
When I have come across any that display the UAC it was because the version they were on was an 18xx or 19xx. JamesM
- JamesMBrass ContributorYes it resolved itself after a couple days.
But **bleep**, they could have run more tests before releasing the software update.
Anyway I'm happy to have a free tool like Quick Assist, just wish they'd leave it alone.
- JCHolmesCopper Contributor
Nathan_Pfeifer, LOL I can't even get the new "Microsoft Store" version of Quick Assist to run at all. The latest 2.0.8.0 version of it is installed, WebView2 is installed, but when I try to run it, after briefly getting the "spinning dots" throbber for a few seconds, it just comes back saying "There's a new version of Quick Assist"... which there isn't, I'm demonstrably on the latest version! So, I can't even run it if I wanted to!
I tried running x64dbg on QuickAssist.exe, the log shows me what I think are the red flags:
DebugString: "onecore\base\appmodel\runtime\winrt\lib\windows.applicationmodel.packagefactory.cpp(44)\Windows.ApplicationModel.dll!00007FFE53F4EFCB: (caller: 00007FF69EA7AAEF) LogHr(1) tid(1630) 80073D54 The process has no package identity."
and
DebugString: "enduser\remoteassistance\common\systeminfo\systeminfoimpl.cpp(396)\QuickAssist.exe!00007FF69EA7AB0D: (caller: 00007FF69EA72461) ReturnHr(2) tid(1630) 80073D54 The process has no package identity."
Great job!
I'll just use TeamViewer, AnyDesk, or even just Chrome Remote Desktop, since the "Microsoft Store" version of Quick Assist appears to just be using the web browser anyways!
- OAzevedo61Copper Contributorhow works for me:
1) add user as local administrator:
- computer management, local users and groups, Administrators
- restart
2) remove "old" Quick Assist:
- apps > optional features > remove Microsoft Quick Assist
3) reset Microsoft Store cache:
- from shell dos or Win + R, run "WSReset.exe" (wait until terminate)
4) restart (again)
5) go to Microsoft Store > Quick Assist > Install
now Quick Assist must work
6) remove user from local Administrators group- Devin_Smith007Copper Contributor
- OAzevedo61Copper Contributorvery bad. we can´t install. allways get error on intall