In our next major release, we’re delighted to announce a set of feature enhancements to the updated Take Control service. This follows on the heels of our announcement to continue support for the TeamViewer-based version of Take Control, alongside the new MSP Anywhere-based version, so you can choose the one you prefer.

In the meantime, here are three big updates to the MSP Anywhere-based version of Take Control, currently in RC:

• Take Control from Apple Macs: We’re releasing a new Mac Viewer so you can, for the first time, use remote access from a Mac (we plan to bring you the option to Take Control onto a Mac very shortly too!)

• New Take Control ‘policies’: We’ll be adding a set of additional configuration options and giving you improved centralised management of Take Control settings.

• Viewer and Host co-residency: With the new Take Control service, you’re able to have both the viewer and host components co-exist on the same device, addressing a longstanding customer request.

We’re especially pleased that we’re able to give technicians who’re on Macs to ability to now use Take Control to support customers with the same set of Take Control options as Windows users. This further builds on our strategy to treat Mac devices as first class citizens in SolarWinds MSP, as recently underlined with the release of the new Mac Agent.

The upcoming Dashboard update also adds full support for Windows Server 2016, following Microsoft’s recent launch of their latest server OS.

All the details…

Here’s a little walkthrough of the new policy screens and their features:

The Policies can be reached by navigating to “Settings -> Take Control -> Policy”, revealing a dialog similar to this one:

Note that, as with Managed Antivirus and Web Protection policies, we now show the usage of each policy instance – so you can tell more easily which policies are most commonly used, and helping you to keep a clean list.

Once you select a Policy and select “Edit”, you’ll come to this dialog. On the General Tab, you can set a ‘monitor only’ policy and also the Take Control agent language.

On the Security tab, you can edit the policy with a range of settings:

Now you have the ability to toggle an end user’s visual indicator, and to lock the device on session termination. We’ll also be introducing the ability to customise the authentication mechanism required to instantiate sessions. You’ll also have the option to customise the message sent when requesting user confirmation.

The Performance tab also adds a set of new options to help you configure the feature for optimum speed and fidelity:

We’ve introduced some highly anticipated features, allowing you the ability to fully tune your session performance parameters.

Summary for Service Release:
– Enhancements to new MSP Anywhere-based Take Control
– Dashboard v6.32
– New RC Agent v10.5.2, no change to GA Agent

Dashboard 6.32
FEATURE: Range of new configuration options for MSP Anywhere-based Take Control in a new feature policy dialog
FEATURE: MSP Anywhere-based Take Control Viewer module for Apple Mac devices
UPDATE: MSP Anywhere-based Take Control Viewer and Host module co-residency on the same device
BUGFIX: Resolve issue with saving of AutoTask Entity Mapping

Agent 10.5.2 RC
UPDATE: Improved fail-over mechanism for environments with upstream proxy servers
UPDATE: Updated Support for Kaspersky 2015, 2016 and 20167 to AV Update check
UPDATE: Automated Take Control debug log collection
UPDATE: Updated Risk Intelligence components
BUGFIX: Fixes issue with Altaro Hyper-V Backup check
BUGFIX: Fixes issue with ShadowProtect SPX