MeshCentral - MeshCentral Assistant and Remote Help

It’s always interesting when MeshCentral gains new features that not only make it better but address new adjacent markets. MeshCentral does remote management of devices, but it’s been used occasionally for remote support where users initiate a help request. This week, a major update to MeshCentral Assistant makes MeshCentral a much more capable for user-initiated help. A partial port of the MeshAgent C code to C# was completed and included in MeshCentral Assistant making this tool fully capable of connecting to the MeshCentral server on its own, no agent required. In detail:

  • MeshCentral Assistant Dual Usage. MeshCentral Assistant continues to be a tool that can be used to monitor a MeshAgent running in the background. All previous features remain. However, MeshCentral Assistant can now be downloaded from the MeshCentral server with a “.msh” file included within it’s executable. The inclusion is done automatically by the server and the .msh includes information on how to connect back and authenticates the server. When provided with this information, MeshCentral Assistant will show as ready to connect when requested by the user.
  • MeshCentral Assistant Download. Administrators can now download MeshCentral Assistant from their MeshCentral server the same way they can download the MeshAgent. The “Add Agent” dialog box has a new option to download the tool and this will include the server and device group data within the executable. On top of this, the agent installation invitation page also includes Assistant, so users can find and download it on their own if needed.
  • User Consent and Privacy bar. Like the MeshAgent, user privacy features are supported in MeshCentral Assistant including the user consent prompt that now include the real name and account image of the administrator or technical support person. The user interface for the consent prompt and notifications look great. In addition, the privacy bar will show up when a session is initiated, and it can’t be removed by the administrator to guaranty that the local user knows the system is remotely controlled. At any time, clicking the red x on the privacy bar will disconnect any active MeshCentral support sessions.
  • MeshCentral Assistant Self-Update. MeshCentral Assistant is capable of self-updating. Unlike the agent, the update process requires user approval and takes a few seconds. This process ensures that more features and security fixes can quickly be pushed out to devices that make use of MeshCentral Assistant as a support tool. If a user selects “later” when prompted to update, they can always opt to update later using the system tray menu.

This has been quite a bit of work as many of the features of the MeshAgent where re-built in C# including the remote desktop capture and optimizer code. As usual, feedback is appreciated. If you see any problems or need support on something, please create a new issue on GitHub or help other users. For more information, visit the portal at https://meshcentral.com.

Enjoy!
Ylian
MeshCentral, Blog, Twitter,
Reddit, GitHub, YouTube.







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