Remote Assistance

I offer remote assistance to users at our company fairly often, the problem that I run in to is that our computer names are not linked to users. I have been looking for a way to set up shortcut links for each user and various 3rd party apps with no luck. Does anyone have a good solution?

Thanks,

J

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Comments

brad-

Ive worked with a number of different remote tools, and none of them were username based...ie it wouldnt follow someone around. I would venture to say I dont think that is possible.

RTmarc

I started using BGInfo code in my user's login scripts. It will at post the information such as hostname and IP address on the background of their desktop so it will at least alleviate that step. Nothing like trying to walk a 60 year old employee through finding the IP address and/or hostname of her machine.... Now, I just tell them to read it off to me from the background.

dynamik

How you are performing remote assistance? Are you using the built-in Windows feature or a third-party solution? There are several ways to perform this without knowing the computer name.

J-Dubs

The BGInfo tip is a good idea, that type of situation is exactly what I have been running into.

Dynamik - I am using the built in RA with XP.

RTmarc

J-Dubs wrote:

The BGInfo tip is a good idea, that type of situation is exactly what I have been running into.

Dynamik - I am using the built in RA with XP.

Here's the code I added to the login script:

:: Creates directory if needed
if not exist "C:\bginfo" md C:\bginfo
:: End directory creation

:: Copies JPG if needed
if not exist "C:\bginfo\apr08.jpg" copy "\\servername\share$\apr08.jpg" C:\bginfo
:: End JPG copy

:: Copies exe if needed
if not exist "C:\bginfo\bginfo.exe" copy "\\servername\share$\bginfo.exe" C:\bginfo
:: End exe copy

:: Copies config file if needed
if not exist "C:\bginfo\apr08.bgi" copy "\\servername\share$\apr08.bgi" C:\bginfo
:: End config file copy

:: Starts BGInfo App
start c:\bginfo\bginfo.exe "c:\bginfo\apr08.bgi" /timer:0
:: End BGInfo app start

dynamik

Wow. You give your users bginfo for their wallpaper, eh? That's cold

I love it on my servers though.

Do you need the name because you're initiating the request? Is there a reason you can't use messenger, email, or a file?

J-Dubs

RTmarc - Do you know how to get an HTML tag to work in the configuration file?

Dynamik - I am initiating the request, the only way to do that is with the computer name or IP address. There are not too many technically savvy people around here. I am also working on putting a support link in the BGInfo configuration that they user can invite me through. I just can't figure out how to create the link inside the BGI configuration screen.

Silver Bullet

You could do something simple like this with a logon script. It will only output the computername to a file that is named as username.txt and is placed on a common shared drive of your choice.

set computername >\\servername\computernames\%username%.txt

Then you could just open the shared drive and find Joeuser.txt and open the text file to get the computer name.

The file should be replaced everytime the logon script runs, but you could clear out the directory manually or on a scheduled task if you wanted.

RTmarc

dynamik wrote:

Wow. You give your users bginfo for their wallpaper, eh? That's cold

I love it on my servers though.

Do you need the name because you're initiating the request? Is there a reason you can't use messenger, email, or a file?

Our Marketing Director likes to come up with themed backgrounds from time to time and since it is company policy for everyone to have a set background, I push all of it out via login script and BGInfo.

I have no idea how to get HTML to work with it or if it is even possible.