Request Remote Assistance on a District Chromebook
It is now possible for a user of a District Chromebook--student or staff--to request a live remote support session on their device. This is functionally similar to our practice of remote support of Windows machines, if not exactly the same. In a nutshell, all you need to do is to call the Helpdesk at 8878 with the Borough Number of your District Chromebook, and we can begin a live support session with you.
Requirements for a Remote Support Session
-
It must be a District Chromebook, and not a personal device.
-
The Chrome OS version must be at least 96.x. If you need to update your device, see Manually Update Chrome OS on a Chromebook.
-
The Chromebook must have an active user session. Unlike with our Windows devices, we cannot remote in to a Chromebook that does not have a user logged in.
-
The requesting user must accept the remote session. We cannot remote in to the device without the user's active acceptance.
-
The Chromebook cannot fall asleep during the session. The remote session can be cancelled at any time by the user, or by the device falling asleep!
Requesting a Remote Support Session
You can think of this process as "I am 'requesting' and then 'accepting' and 'managing' a 'live' remote support session". We (the Helpdesk) may wind up taking over your screen and pointer to help you out, but at all times it is technically you who has control over the session.
First, call the Helpdesk line at 8878 to begin the process. Be sure to have your Chromebook at hand, and logged in to a user session. With the Borough Number of your Chromebook (e.g., "78-05720"), we will look the device up in Google Admin and initiate a remote session request back to the device. You will see the request as a pop-up Notification:
Click the SHARE link to initiate the session. Once established, you will get another pop-up Notification that the session is active:
During the Remote Session
That "You're sharing your screen" Notification will disappear after a time, but you can always bring it back up (this Notification can only be "cleared" by stopping the session) by clicking on the "system tray" area at the lower right corner of the screen (un-cleared Notifications appear above the pop-up system control panel). Incidentally, while your session is active, there is an icon in the system tray that indicates it:
Stopping the Remote Session
- You can stop an active remote session at any time by clicking the STOP link in that "You're sharing your screen" Notification.
- A remote session will automatically "time-out" after a period of session inactivity from the support side. On your Chromebook, you will be offered a chance to continue the remote session or close it; if you do not actively extend the session, it will terminate and you'll need to re-start it again to continue.
- On the support side (the Helpdesk side), we can terminate the session by closing the visor we are using for the connection.
- Logging out, or causing the Chromebook to sleep or turn off, will terminate the session.
For More Information