Remote Assistance: Fixing Offer Remote Assistance
I'm researching Offer Remote Assistance currently and dang, we had about 54 things to fix before we got the process going. First, we had to take all sorts of steps to enable "Offer Remote Assistance" in Group Policy. Then, we had several SID related issues which created the following events in Event Viewer:
EventID: 2: A XML parsing error for ... occurred when attempting to process a remote assistance ticket.
We fixed that by changing the SID of the machine but soon ran into another issue:
EventID: 5251: The HelpAssistant account is disabled or missing, or the password could not be verified. Remote Assistance will be disabled. Restart the computer in safe mode and type the following text at the command prompt: sessmgr.exe -service.
This was addressed by running that as a startup script in Group Policy instead of running it in Safe Mode. Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc -> Local -> Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Scripts -> Startup
That totally fixed the 5251 error after a reboot BUT then we ran into another error. When we'd attempt to Offer Remote Assistance, there would be a partial login then the following pop-up would appear: Logon Message: You do not have access to logon to this session. In addition, the following error would be generated in the event log:
EventID: 5270: A remote assistance ticket has been created with duration: 0.08hrs for user
This was extremely time consuming to fix as there was no solution to this anywhere on the Internet. There were incredible attempts on usenet as seen here, but none of the solutions worked. So I loaded up the registry for a machine that successfully accepted Remote Assistance offers and a machine that didn't. I noticed a peculiar entry on the machine that didn't seem right:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControl Set\Control\Terminal Server\fInHelpMode was set to 1 even though the machine was not "in help mode" because it was broken. I deleted the key, restarted the machine and after months of trying, successfully offered remote assistance. This fix worked on all machines which encountered the "You do not have access to logon to this session" error. If you're searching for a fix on Google, I hope this works for you too!
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January 12th, 2007 - 12:40
Based on your stuff above:
@Echo Off
Echo Stopping The Remote Assistance Service…
Echo;
net stop rdsessmgr
REM Sleep for a bit
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul
REM Issue the Command to reset the Remote Assistance Password
Echo Running Fix for Remote Assistance…
Echo;
%systemroot%\system32\sessmgr.exe -service
REM Sleep for a bit
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul
Echo Starting Remote Assistance Service…
Echo;
net start rdsessmgr
Echo Fixing Problem Registry Key
Echo;
REM Set the File Name [user temp directory]\EnableRA.reg and delete if already present
SET tempreg=%Temp%\EnableRA.reg
IF EXIST %tempreg% DEL %tempreg%
Echo Creating Temporary Registry File
Echo;
REM Write the Reg File
Echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00>>%tempreg%
Echo;
Echo;>>%tempreg%
Echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]>>%tempreg%
Echo “fInHelpMode”=dword:00000000>>%tempreg%
REM Run the Reg File in Silent Mode
Regedit /S %tempreg%
REM Sleep for a bit
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul
Echo Cleaning Up
Echo;
REM Sleep for a bit
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul
REM Delete the file
IF EXIST %tempreg% DEL %tempreg%
Echo Closing – Done!
Echo;
REM Sleep for a bit
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul
January 12th, 2007 - 13:08
That’s de bomb, Geoffrey! Thanks for sharing
February 6th, 2007 - 12:40
Wow! I have been looking for a fix for Remote Assistance for the last 6 months. I found this page yesterday and it fixed my problem.
Thank you very much!!
March 26th, 2007 - 10:45
Hi, this does not at all fix my problem. The information below is logged in the event log. But i still get a “Cannot connect to the other computer” message. Please help.
A remote assistance ticket has been created with duration: 0.08hrs for user.
March 26th, 2007 - 16:44
Hey Etinenne,
Can you ping the machine you are looking to remote? It seems like more of a network issue than an RA issue.
Using notepad, open up that invitation and see which IP is listed in there (it precedes :3389). See if you can ping it.
Also, check out: http://www.petri.co.il/what‘s_remote_assistance.htm It may have some helpful info for you.
September 16th, 2007 - 23:34
I managed to fix this “A remote assistance ticket has been created with duration: 0.08hrs for user” error by simply opening the RA invitation file with notepad and removing external (public) IP from configuration.
This works if you can’t do RA on LAN.
December 19th, 2007 - 08:25
Almost there but not yet.
When you do the sessmgr.exe -service, and look with Computer Management at the HelpAssistant account you can see it getting disabled.
When you do a remote assistance this HelpAssistant account gets enabled.
Al very nice, but it doesn’t make it work for me.
December 19th, 2007 - 08:29
But when I added the HelpAssistant to the local administrators group = bingo !!!!
This isn’t a good idea, but now I have a contingency plan …..
any further remarks/thoughts on this are welcome
December 19th, 2007 - 08:39
Ok, with HelpAssistant member of “power users” it continues to work
So what do Power users have rights to that the HelpAssistant does not.
Lets have a look at the local policy gpedit.msc.
December 19th, 2007 - 09:53
Well, well I have it running.
Seam in my case the file access rights where changed.
Using Filemon I could see an Access Denied on a file c:\windows\registration\R000000000010.clb
Compating with a working situation revealed that everyone has to have read rights on this file.
I changed the rights and ….. RA to the finish.
)
My goodness IT can be pleasant….
January 15th, 2008 - 06:38
Figured I’d throw this out there….
The fixes described here haven’t seemed to help us out any. We are having the same issues and have narrowed it down to the installation of RDP v6.0. If we remove KB925876 on the clients and the offering machine (taking them back to 5.x), it all works perfectly again. Once 6 is introduced, it fails with the 0.08hrs error.
I’ve requested one of MS’s unofficial patches to see if it helps (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941603) as I believe this is the situation we are running into. This only occurs with our remote users who come in through our MS PPTP vpn. I’m able to connect to all local network pc’s without any problems.
July 24th, 2008 - 13:12
You rock, girl. Great post, ended two hours of struggling for me. Thanks!
September 17th, 2008 - 04:52
Adding the “sessmgr.exe -service” to the computers startup script with GPO this solved the Remote Assistance problems.
December 1st, 2008 - 22:53
This work for me on my first try. Thanks!
December 7th, 2008 - 19:14
Bless your heart. I wish more people would start posting their problems AND solutions online. Life would be easier for us all.
January 26th, 2009 - 10:04
Hey…thanks for this! The sessmgr -service fixed my errors with RA. I have a script at my site (unsolicited remote assistance) that worked great until “something” happened. In any case, your solution was the fix.
Link for unsolicited remote assistance via LAN:
http://thefreewarejunkie.com/2007/12/script-unsolicited-remote-assistance.html
May 19th, 2009 - 21:01
There is a FREE Microsoft Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget called “Remote Connection Facilitator” that will assist you in automatically displaying and connecting to remote computers. This utility queries for computers in Active Directory, displays the results, and allows you to connect to the machines using Offer Remote Assistance or Remote Desktop with a simple mouse click. Get the gadget here: http://www.scriptingpod.com/rcf-gadget.asp
You can also configure Windows XP machines to auto accept Offer Remote Assistance by using the information found here: http://www.scriptingpod.com/auto-accept-ora.asp
July 1st, 2009 - 04:37
Очень признателен, действительно полезная информация.
October 7th, 2009 - 14:47
Deleting the registry key (fInHelpMode=1) fixed my problem. THANK YOU!
Did you ever figure out what causes this registry entry to appear? I noticed, as did you, that it shows up on about 50% of my machines.
April 26th, 2011 - 05:47
Does anyone knows how to RA on another win7 pc with out having the other user to agree on the conecction, since the other pc is just wired to a tv displaying information slides.