Controlling remote Windows devices

To start remote control
  1. In the Web console's All devices group, or from within one of your groups, click the device you want to control.
  2. Select Remote control in the Properties tab in the lower pane to launch the viewer. (You can also double-click the device you want to control and click Remote session in the left pane.)

Once you've taken control of a remote device, its screen appears in the Viewer window with Autoscroll enabled. If the remote control agent is loaded, the Session messages window in the viewer tells you that the agent is found and what protocol it's using.

To use hot keys
  1. You must be actively remote controlling a device to use hot keys.
  2. With the focus on the Viewer window, press the hot key combination for any one of the available actions.

The available hot keys are found in the Special key icon on the toolbar. One useful hot key is Ctrl+Alt+D, which sends Ctrl+Alt+Delete to the device. You may also change the default mappings.

Sending Ctrl+Alt+Delete to Vista and Windows 7 devices 

The default local security policy on Windows Vista and Windows 7 won't allow Ctrl+Alt+Delete from a remote control viewer. To change this, do the following.

To allow Ctrl+Alt+Delete on Vista and Windows 7 devices
  1. In the Start menu's search box, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
  2. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Logon Options > Software Secure Attention Sequence.
  3. Double-click Disable or Enable Software Secure Attention Sequence.
  4. Click Enabled, and in the drop-down list click either Services or Services and Ease of Access applications.
  5. Click OK.

About the Viewer window focus

If you find that the hot keys don't work, the focus isn't on the Viewer window. If the border is blue/black, the focus isn't on the window. Click inside the window to change the border to yellow/black. Hot keys are now enabled.

To view different areas of a remote device screen

By default the Autoscroll option is enabled. When enabled and currently remote controlling a device, you can place your cursor along the yellow/black border of the Viewer window and scroll up, down, or side to side. The closer your cursor gets to the border, the faster the scrolling will occur. If you want, you can disable Autoscroll in the Options menu. You can then use the Move remote screen icon. Your cursor will become a hand pointer that you can click, drag, and release to view various areas of the remote screen.

Viewing connection messages

You can use the Viewer window's connection messages section to view a history of status messages sent to the status bar (such as remote control agent package exchanges). In addition to the other information this history contains, it lets you:

To view connection messages from the console
  1. In the Viewer window, click View.
  2. Click Connection messages.

Saving connection messages

While you're in a remote control session, you have the option of saving the connection messages. These messages may be useful as an audit trail or if you need to troubleshoot any issues related to using remote control on a particular device.

To save connection messages
  1. In the Viewer window, click File, and click Save connection messages.
  2. In the Save As dialog, type in a file name and save as a .TXT file. The connection messages are saved to the My Documents folder by default.

If the remote control agent is loaded, the Session messages window tells you that the agent is found and what protocol it's using. You will also see a magnifying glass icon appear on the device you selected.

Executing programs remotely

In the Viewer window, you can start any program on a remote device to diagnose issues.

To execute programs remotely
  1. In the toolbar's Run field, enter the path for the program you want to run. If you need to browse the program, click the drop-down list and select Browse.
  2. To run the program on the remote device, click the Remote execute icon to the left of the Run field.

Transferring files to remote devices

You can use the remote control Viewer window to transfer files to and from your machine and the remote device. In essence, this works as though you've mapped a drive to the remote device. You can only transfer files to/from devices that have the remote control agent installed. This feature works even if you're not currently remote controlling a device as long as the connection has been created. The Run each Explorer window in a separate process option doesn't work with file transfer.

To transfer files to a device
  1. Click Tools > File transfer. Windows Explorer appears.
  2. Select a file to transfer by clicking the filename. Right-click the file and select Copy, or select to drag and drop.
  3. Scroll down the Windows Explorer tree to LANDesk Remote Control. Below this you should see the name of the remote device you're controlling. Select a folder to paste the file to, then right-click and select Paste.

Similarly, you can also transfer files from a remote device to your device.

Shutting down and rebooting remote devices

You can remotely shut down or reboot devices. When you do, a message box appears on the remote device with a warning that the system will shut down in X seconds. If someone is currently at that machine they can click a Shutdown or Cancel button. If no action is taken the reboot will happen when the countdown reaches 0. When typing a time before rebooting the device, the maximum number of seconds allowed is 300 seconds (five minutes).

If the device has applications open with unsaved data, those applications will probably interrupt the shutdown when they prompt for the user to save. You may have to remote control the device and save/close applications for the shut down or reboot to work.

Configuring session options

Use items under the Options menu to enhance the quality of a remote control session. You can speed up the viewing rate and change the Viewer window settings.

In the Change settings tab:

In the Optimize performance tab:

Display:

Mirror driver

During the Management Suite installation, you had the option to install the remote control mirror driver. This driver can reduce the amount of time required to see the target machine's desktop and increase the visual quality of the targeted desktop's image. A raster-based approach to screen capture can be implemented without any drivers, which is a huge advantage if the agent is to be downloaded over the Internet or installed on machines by users who do not have administrative rights. However, significant performance improvements can be achieved by using a driver that receives all of the output that Windows is sending to the real display driver.