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I frequently use online meeting software to meet with customers. Typically, I will host a meeting using Webex and have the client share his computer. I'll then take control and work remotely using an assortment of programs - Visual Studio, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), a browser, etc. This technique has worked wonderfully for the past couple of years.

However, I have a new customer for which we've noticed some odd (and repeatable) behavior. The problem crops up when using Webex launched from my computer or GoToMeeting launched from his. In short, when he shares his desktop and I take control I am able to move the mouse and use the keyboard just fine when IE has focus, or notepad, or Windows Explorer. But as soon as I switch to either Visual Studio or SSMS, my control is abruptly ended. Moving my mouse or using the keyboard no longer registers on his desktop. The customer can switch focus to some other program (like IE) and then return control to me, but as soon as I go back to VS or SSMS - bam - it happens again.

Note: After switching to VS/SMSS I can still see the client moving his mouse or switching windows, so it's not like the entire session freezes - rather, just my control of the remote computer seems to be terminated and not returned until my customer moves to another window and tells the screen sharing program to give me control again.

If it matters, the customer is using Windows Vista with all of the Aero bells and whistles turned on.

Has anyone seen or heard of behavior like this?

UPDATE: I am continuing to have this problem in 2014. The customers I meet with aren't using Vista these days, but Windows 7 and the problem also exists with Visual Studio 2013. Interestingly, things work swimmingly with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, but more modern versions of those products still cause the problems I first bumped into back in 2011.

Scott Mitchell
  • 719

3 Answers3

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The article VS 2010 Team Explorer crashes with WebEx Connect has some advice that may apply here.

One advice was :

In the WebEx Connect preferences, select the Integrations category and uncheck the box labeled "Display WebEx Connect status in Microsoft Office applications".

Another was :

We had the same problem for a while. This is due to the TFS PowerTools add-on, where the Team Member collaboration points to "Microsoft Office Communicator" by default (which I don't have ! but use WebEx instead) .

Just remove the default value, that way: In Team Explorer, for ex within VS2010:

  • Right-click on the "Team Members" tree node (below "Work Items", "Reports" and "Builds")
  • Choose the last option: "Personal Settings..." (it opens a pop-up)
  • In the "Gereral" tab, you will see "Collaboration" group
  • Change the default "Provider" from "Microsoft Office Communicator" to ""
  • You will end-up having "", then click "OK"
harrymc
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I was having the same issue, and then I found this, which basically would ask to run every app as "Admin" or at least run Zoom/Webex as "Admin" as well.

Why won't keyboard and mouse control work for certain apps?

You might notice that your attendees are unable to use your keyboard and mouse within certain specific apps. This is due to a conflict with the Windows Integrity Mechanism and likely indicates that the app is running at a higher integrity level than the GoToMeeting desktop app. For example, if an app on your computer is running as admin (which uses a high integrity level), then other attendees will be unable to use your keyboard and mouse within it because the GoToMeeting desktop app runs at a medium security level.

If you know that you want your attendees to be able to access an app that runs at a higher integrity level, you must launch GoToMeeting as an admin when you start your session (by right-clicking the app and selecting Run as admin).

Community
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user1118810
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I've been using join.me for this type of meeting and noticed quite a while ago that launching the join.me host meeting with administrative privileges was required to control any administrative window on the host computer. This is true for cmd.exe just as it is true for Visual Studio (devenv.exe).

Recently I tried to switch to another screen-sharing application due to problems with join.me running a persistent service that seemed to slow my computer drastically, esp during reboots.

So far, I've been unable to get gotomeeting or webex to work on these administrative windows, but it does work just fine in join.me if and when the host meeting is launched with administrative access (start as admin).

ebyrob
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