Services Utility: Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Service
| Display Name (?): | Remote Desktop Help Session Manager | ||||||||||||||
| Short Name (?): | RDSessMgr | ||||||||||||||
| Executable (?): | sessmgr.exe | ||||||||||||||
| Library (?): | None. | ||||||||||||||
| Depends On (?): | Remote Procedure Call (RPC) | ||||||||||||||
| Supports (?): | None. | ||||||||||||||
| Description (?): | Manages and controls Remote Assistance. If this service is stopped, Remote Assistance will be unavailable. Before stopping this service, see the Dependencies tab of the Properties dialog box. | ||||||||||||||
| OS (?): | XP Home/Professional, Vista Home/Business, Server 2003, Vista Server | ||||||||||||||
| Startup (?): |
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Explanation (?): | The Remote Desktop help session manager service allows you to offer control over your computer to someone that you trust through Remote Assistance. This service requires that the Help and Support service can be started, and it relies on the Terminal Services service. This is a very interesting feature that allows others to help you with computer problems you are having. But, you should be careful which people you give access to your computer. When you select to create the invitation it will activate RDSHOST.exe, which is the Remote Assistance watcher that provides features to the Terminal Services service. When the invitation is given to a remote user they can use it to connect to you through port 3389, or whatever your Remote Desktop port is. It should be noted that changing the RD port may break Remote Assistance. When you execute the Remote Assistance (rcimlby.exe -LaunchRA) application it will autostart the Hepl and Support (helpsvc.exe) service as well as the Help and Support Center (helpctr.exe) dialog. Then you are able to invite someone using Remote Assistance, through Windows Messenger (the chat program), Outlook/Outlook express, or through a standalone file. The basic concept is that all these programs offer a connection portal to the user in question for a specified amount of time under specific conditions. When connected both of you will have a Help Center interface that lets you text chat, voice chat, transfer files, terminate the connection, etc. For the user sharing their computer it has a kick disconnect feature that lets you cut off the remote controlling user if they get out of hand. This service is not an integral part of Windows, but it can be very useful to help provide remote support to customers, co-workers, etc. I would recommend that you leave this service set to manual as it only starts when it is required. However, it should be noted that after it has started it will not automatically shut down, as it leaves itself open until the next reboot waiting for a Remote Assistance connection. If you never plan on using this service then you can safely set it to disabled, but I would discourage doing so. |