Did you know that recent versions of Windows come with a baked-in remote access/support App called Quick Assist?

For years now, I’ve used TeamViewer and it work flawlessly. That said, I was turned off by their ‘recent’ change over to subscription based updates and disabling of older versions forcing people to update.

So in recent months, I have been trying to look at alternatives and have used Quick Assist now on multiple occasions with multiple clients/family and friends.  Below are some of my experiences and observations.

PROs

• We can’t get a better the price!  Free is always a good thing in my books
• Integrated in Windows, so it is there ready to go (see CONs)
• It, the connection, has been very reliable in my experience

CONs

• Only available on Windows 10 & 11 (so you can’t support any earlier versions)
• Every time I’ve tried to use it, the person at the other end has needed to update the app.  This causes delays, and frustrations for non tech savvy users
• Requires a Microsoft account that you log into to be able to provide support
• You have a time limit to establish an initial connection with the other party.  Most of the time it is more than sufficient, but I have had cases where it took longer and then the password changes and you have to start over with the other party…
• Unlike most remote support software, Quick Assist does not allow transferring files!
• Probably caused by the same limitation as stated in the previous point, there is no ability to even perform a simple textual Copy/Paste in either direction!
• If you try to perform an action that requires Administrative privileges (install, configure, …) the screen goes entirely black (see the image provided below) and the person on the other end must approve the action/prompt.  Once again, not ideal when trying to provide remote support and the other person is not technically savvy and you can’t even see what they are being prompted to answer, making it very difficult to guide them through the process!
• There is not chat feature

Here’s is what happens when you try to execute any command, install, uninstall, run,  anything that requires admin privileges.

Sadly, this make Quick Assist truly inadequate for IT Admins to use.  For instance, I was trying to deal with a PC which had been hacked and ended up ditching Quick Assist pretty fast because of this issue making it simply useless.  Once the end-user authorizes the other person to have control, there is simply no reason for this stupidity!
 

A Few Tips/Workarounds

• When providing support, I highly recommend e-mailing/Texting the code to the other party to avoid issues while on the phone trying to communicate the code.
• To transfer files, since the ability does not exist via the app itself, use e-mail or online drives (OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, …)
• To simulate a chat feature, consider using the user’s NotePad, WordPad, Word, …

Overall Conclusion

It is a nice application, but there remains a LOT of room for improvement.

It remains a tool that I feel is not nearly developed to its full potential and Microsoft could easily inspire themselves from other well known remote support tools (which I’m sure they already have) so as to improve upon the current design and provide a far superior tool.

For helping friends and family with Word documents, email and other simple things it can do the job, but for business support or more serious uses it simply does not cut the mustard (as they say).
 

Resources On The Subject

Use Quick Assist to help users - Windows Client Management

Learn how IT Pros can use Quick Assist to help users.

Install Quick Assist - Microsoft Support

Get help with installing Quick Assist from Microsoft Store.