Excessively troublesome Windows 7 and remote utilities

[AZRedhawk44]

Okay, so Fistful and Mabs may like Windows 7...

I just used WebEx to remote-control another person's computer that was running Windows 7.  I could not pull up the services.msc applet.  It would draw the form, but wouldn't allow me to control any input inside the form.

I bet GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC do the same thing:  Prohibit a remote user from doing advanced administration on a windows 7 OS.

Makes me wonder if I am prohibited from doing the same thing (as a professional database developer for a software company) on a Windows 2008 Server OS, too.  Imagine not being able to examine services running on a Windows server!

Wonder what else they messed up.

[mtnbkr]

Why not use RDP for that?

Chris

[doczinn]

Art's Grammaw is not amused by the thread title.

[mtnbkr]

Happy now? :)

[MikeB]

Okay, so Fistful and Mabs may like Windows 7...

I just used WebEx to remote-control another person's computer that was running Windows 7.  I could not pull up the services.msc applet.  It would draw the form, but wouldn't allow me to control any input inside the form.

I bet GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC do the same thing:  Prohibit a remote user from doing advanced administration on a windows 7 OS.

Makes me wonder if I am prohibited from doing the same thing (as a professional database developer for a software company) on a Windows 2008 Server OS, too.  Imagine not being able to examine services running on a Windows server!

Wonder what else they messed up.

For administering Windows 7 workstations try http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/01/05/windows-7-god-mode/. This should work with Webex, though possibly not. It's also possible the user wasn't clicking the button giving permission for the services dialog to open. You can also turn off UAC.

Server 2008 has it's own interesting feature. If you log in as a different user remotely it will sometimes decide that the network connection needs to change to public category effectively disconnecting you and turning on a firewall. Why a Server OS especially on a Domain would even have that stupid network places dialog I don't know.

[AZRedhawk44]

Why not use RDP for that?

Chris

He's behind one NAT, I'm behind another, no common network to direct-RDP through.

You can also turn off UAC.

Not through a webex, I can't.  The user can.  If he knew how.

It's also possible the user wasn't clicking the button giving permission for the services dialog to open.

Asked him if there was a nanny-screen asking for permission to do something.  He said "no."

[Brad Johnson]

Asked him if there was a nanny-screen asking for permission to do something.  He said "no."

Which, unfortunately, means exactly squat.  Mom called once, having problems saving pics from an email.  She kept saying "I'm clicking where you tell me but it's not doing anything".  I asked her repeatedly if any kind of error or message window was popping up.  She kept saying no.  I knew something was happening because I could hear the "hang on" tone playing each time she clicked.

After about half an hour of this she finally said, "There's an extra stripe across the top of the screen when I hear the noise."     When my BP returned to normal I walked her through allowing the download.

Brad

[AZRedhawk44]

Does windows 7 mess up things like Altiris' remote control client or perhaps VNC?

Unfortunately, I have to come up with some sort of work-around for this.  The lack of common network (both of us behind separate NATs) is rare and unlikely to happen again... typically we are able to connect to the same VPN network to see the same resources.

[TechMan]

I know that we have to set the UAC to really low for our batch files to work when our users are logging into the network.  There was no annoying nanny-screen that was popping up.

[mtnbkr]

He's behind one NAT, I'm behind another, no common network to direct-RDP through.

You can craft a rule on the FW that would allow you to connect through.  I've done that several times either directly or through an SSH tunnel.

Either set a 1 to 1 NAT rule on the FW or use Port Forwarding (or the equiv for the FW you're working with) to forward all RDP connections to that host (assuming yours is the only one and his is the only RDP endpoint).

I've RDPed from my office at work to my home box via SSH tunneling.  I'm behind one NATing FW and my home box is behind another.  My office FW allows outbound SSH.  My home FW allows inbound SSH to my linux box.  Once I connect to the Linux box, I route my RDP traffic through the SSH tunnel, using the Linux box as a proxy.  I make it easy with Tunnelier.

Chris

[AZRedhawk44]

No control over his NAT'ed firewall.  Behind another company's firewall.

[mtnbkr]

He doesn't have control over it or the ability to request changes?

Is there a host you can SSH to, so you can run the session over SSH?  Maybe a DMZ server or something of the sort?

Chris

[AZRedhawk44]

Nope and nope.

Webex was our solution for this type of thing.

[mtnbkr]

well damn.

Chris

[MikeB]

Does windows 7 mess up things like Altiris' remote control client or perhaps VNC?

Unfortunately, I have to come up with some sort of work-around for this.  The lack of common network (both of us behind separate NATs) is rare and unlikely to happen again... typically we are able to connect to the same VPN network to see the same resources.

Here - http://www.kaseya.com/products/kaseya-free.aspx