We are delighted to announce that as of Agent 10.5.0 (RC) and later, we’ll be introducing an updated version of Take Control. This new version is designed to be more reliable and responsive, and it will allow us to add a variety of additional features and settings in the future. 

Your experience with the updated version of Take Control will look and behave much like the traditional version of Take Control. The main difference is in the underlying technology. This means that we’ll be providing a new and updated Take Control Viewer as well as an updated Agent component. Don’t worry though, we’ll continue to integrate with existing stand-alone TeamViewer licenses the way we do now – the update to Take Control doesn’t affect this.

Here are the key improvements to Take Control:

• Security: The new Take Control is also designed from the ground up with security in mind. All sessions are fully secure with the Rijndael Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), using a 256-bit cipher. Encryption keys are randomly generated for each session and all key exchanges are protected by an SSL based in AES-CBC with TLS v1.1.

• Performance: With network performance in mind, the updated Take Control utilises a large variety of global resources, and we employ a highly accurate geolocation method to ensure that the resources facilitating your connection are the best available in your location.

• Policy-managed settings: In order to better support feature management, you’ll now be able to configure Take Control settings using feature policies, much like you can with Managed Antivirus for example. Feature policies offer a more centralised, scalable approach to managing and rolling out Take Control. Existing Take Control settings will be migrated into policies. We will continue to bring in more policy options throughout the RC.

• Co-existing Viewer and Host: One important feature to call out is that with the updated version of Take Control, you’ll be able to install both the Take Control Viewer and the Take Control Host on the same machine – a commonly requested feature improvement for Take Control.

Please also note that during the initial RC period, the new Take Control feature is available for Windows devices. We’re working to add support for Apple Mac and will have this available before we make the update GA.

All the details…
Here is a quick walkthrough of the feature update.

Note that new Take Control requires RC Agent 10.5.0 or above.

On the Dashboard, when your client machines are on the updated agent version, your Take Control session will look and feel much the same as you’re used to now:

You might notice that Take Control is now noted at the bottom of the Summary tab:

With the updated version, when you launch a Take Control session there will be no file downloaded, as we’ve removed the requirement for the .TVC file. This means that, provided you’ve installed the Viewer prior to launching your session, you will connect seamlessly:

All the familiar commands are present within an updated menu layout. Here is the new View Menu:

Here you can see the Command Menu:

And here you can see the new Interactions Menu:

The Chat and File transfer options also still exist but again, are moved to new locations.

File Transfer:

Chat:

We’re excited about the performance improvements the new Take Control service will bring. We encourage you to try it out in your test environments during the RC period and share with us any feedback you have. We’ll also keep you posted on our progress to add Mac support and will let you know when that becomes available.

Here are the release notes for the upcoming update….

Summary for Release
– Feature update to Take Control
– Dashboard 6.29
– New RC Agent 10.5.0, no change to existing GA

Dashboard v6.29
UPDATE: New Take Control Viewer for Windows and support for updated Take Control client (requires RC Agent)
UPDATE: Take Control Viewer and Host can be installed alongside each other on the same device (requires RC Agent)
UPDATE: See a variety of relevant asset data on the General tab (requires RC Agent)

Agent v10.5.0 RC
UPDATE: New Take Control Host for Windows
UPDATE: Error-free reconnection to Take Control session after device reboot
BUGFIX: Ensure disconnecting a Take Control session does not leave Desktop Wallpaper blank

Note
The new Take Control feature is available for Windows devices. We’re working to add support for Apple Mac and plan to have this available before we turn the update GA.

Known issues

1. Italian not a fully supported MPSC RC candidate
2. Within Roles  Permissions – TakeControl has been enabled for the admin_classic role