Permission Denied Error When You Are Using Offer Remote Assistance

When you are using Remote Assistance and the Expert attempts to connect to the Novice's computer by using Offer Remote Assistance, you may receive the following message:

This issue can occur if either of the following conditions is true.

• The Expert that is offering Remote Assistance does not have the proper permissions on the Novice's computer.
• The machine that is being OFFERED remote assistance has Simple File Sharing Enabled.

To resolve this issue, use either of the following methods, as appropriate to your situation.

Verify That the Expert Is Part of the Helper's Group on the Novice's Computer

To verify that the Expert is part of the Helper's group on the Novice's computer, follow these steps:

1. On the Novice's computer, click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK to start the Group Policy editor.
2. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, and then expand Remote Assistance.
3. Double-click the Offer Remote Assistance policy.
4. Verify that the policy is enabled. Click Show to display the list of experts who can connect.
5. Verify that the Expert who is trying to connect is listed in the Helpers group.
   
   Note This dialog box does not verify that the user who is listed in the Helpers group is a valid user. Verify that the user is a valid user on the domain.

Turn Off Simple File Sharing

To turn on or to turn off Simple File Sharing Windows XP Professional, follow these steps:

1. Double-click My Computer on the desktop.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab, and then click to select the Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended) check box to turn on Simple File Sharing. Click to clear this check box to turn off this feature.

Group policies that are being pushed down from the domain may also affect the ability of the Expert to connect to the Novice. For example, a Group Policy may force the Expert to be added to the Novice's Local Administrator group for Offer Remote Assistance to work.

You can also use Resultant Set of Policies (RSoP) to determine if policies are being pushed down from the domain, and if those policies override the local computer's policy. See the Online Help for more information on RSoP.

Contact the domain administrator if you suspect that a policy may be causing this error.