How to deploy SCCM Remote Control Bits (standalone) to clients without ConfigMgr Console being installed

Introduction/Problem:

We are in process of completing office 365 project to all users which bring teams and other products as part of office 365. We are using Lync/Skype for business as collaboration tool prior to office 365 project but once the project started ,every one is on teams hence we can decom lync servers and also disable lync for users.

Before we proceed to sunset Lync/Skype for business, we need to look at the features feature comparison. Although teams  cannot be compared with Skype in terms of feature that it carry on,there is one major thing that is not as good as Lync is desktop sharing.  For support people (like desktop support,helpdesk) ,Lync is major function for desktop sharing and perform troubleshooting remotely.

In Teams,if you want to share desktop/give control to support person, you need to make audio/video call then have control which is bit inconvenient for users to be on call. So until Microsoft bring something to this feature, we depend on SCCM remote control functionality (If you have Configmgr in the infra) .

I know many of the organisations out there will be using Microsoft SCCM remote control primarily by helpdesk/desktop but we decided to make this SCCM Remote control tools available on each user desktop support technician and also IT people as standalone without sccm console.

Solution:

Many blog post there on the internet on how to SCCM remote control without being install SCCM Console. Reference Jörgen Nilsson post https://ccmexec.com/2012/05/running-configuration-manager-2012-remote-control-standalone/ and many others .

We will use these set of files located in your Configmgr installation folder (D:\Configmgr\AdminConsole\bin\i386 , files RdpCoreSccm.dll, CmRcViewer.exe and CmRcViewerRes.dll ) and create simple batch script to copy these files to C:\program files x86) and make the shortcut available in start Menu for all users.

Download the source files from here.

These files are being copied from SCCM Build 1802 or lower but it works fine irrespective of client version matches this remote control version or not .Give a try ,if you have any issues ,get the right files from your SCCM server that is installed in your infra.

Unzip the files and copy the folder to your SCCM Source location folder .

You will see the following content inside the remote control folder.

Here is the simple batch script that copy the remote control files and create shortcut in Start Menu folder for all users.

REM Copying SCCM Remote Control bits to Local Drive

XCOPY "SCCM Remote Control" "C:\Program Files (x86)\SCCM Remote Control" /s /i /y

REM Copy SCCM Remote control shortcut to All users start Menu

xcopy "%~dp0SCCM Remote Control\Remote Control.lnk" "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" /Y

You can now create application with detection rule as follows. You can also go with file version check.

Type: File

Path: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\SCCM Remote Control

File or Folder name: CmRcViewer.exe

User Experience:

Rest of the configuration go with default or if you have any custom requirement like OS limit etc.

Once the application is created ,distribute to distribution points and deploy to device collection.

Client results:

With this ,every support technician can use SCCM remote control to troubleshoot issues . (For successful remote control ,make sure the client is healthy ,active and required firewall ports are opened from the console to client)

You can deploy this tools to windows 7,windows 10 and server OS if user wish to remote control from.

Hope it helps !