Trouble Using Remote Assistance

Let's say you're trying to have someone help you out with a problem, and you decide to use remote assistance. So, you open Help and Support Center and try to send an invitationonly to get the following error:

Your administrator has configured the PreventRun settings either in your computer's Registry or with a Group Policy setting.

You're out of luck, right? Not necessarily. Before you send off an email invitation or get up and visit your administrator (who will just tell you he's not going to turn on Windows Messenger for youbelieve me, I've worked with enough of these administrator types), you might want to try the following resolutions:

You could open your local machine's Group Policy editor:

1.	Start | Run | gpedit.msc.
2.	Then look under Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Messenger. There's a setting called "Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run."
3.	Double-click and configure the setting to "Disabled," as shown in Figure 14-6. Figure 14-6. Disabling the setting that prevents Windows Messenger.

This might just do the trick, but it will depend on how your Group Policies have been implemented in your network. A good administrator will configure Group Policies so that they cannot be overridden.

Another possible solution is to edit the Registry's PreventRun value:

1.	Click Start | Run, and then type regedit.
2.	Then in the Registry editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Messenger\Client.
3.	Double-click the PreventRun value, and change this value to "0."
4.	Close the Registry editor and restart Windows.

Either of these solutions may enable you to run Windows Messenger once again and thus get help from a friend through Remote Assistance.