Conrad Sallian's community posts

Hello Ashley,

Unfortunately by the time you wrote that message i was on the way to the client to repair the desktop, it had indeed had VIEWER installed and not HOST, it now has a new host installed and is in use migrating servers.

Still I can't see even the slightest possibility of Host downloaded the Viewer installer instead of, well, Host when you initiate simple update. We serve the same Host file from our site to all customers (it is the Host that contacts the update server). How come that one single Host downloads a different file for one customer if the download link is hardcoded into the program? Besides, we haven't received other similar complaints - I mean installing Viewer instead of Host when Simple update is involved.

This can only be possible if you used Remote Install tool for updating a fed a different installer into the Remote Install window. I cannot see other explanations. But you only mentioned Simple Update that's why it's strange.

Hi Ashley,

If there is a log file then the PC i will see in about 4 hours i bet has the viewer installed, so if you want me to track down any install log i might be able to do that. However it has to be working today as i have a huge server migration to do over the weekend from that PC on the clients LAN. So once i get there it will be fixed.

We may need the logs and files listed in this article https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/kb/host-service-won-t-start/ . Note, however, that it's still very strange to hear that Viewer was installed instead of Host.

Regarding the server update - yes, it is recommended to update the server as well.

Hello Jason,

Thank you for the details.

After upodating everything, except the host on the client machine, I was able to login to the host machine via the client's viewer just once. Leaving it over night returned to the access denied errors, so I did manage to log into the host, but I'm still being told it's out of date.

If you managed to access the Host from the Viewer and never changed anything in the authorization system in the Host settings ever since, it cannot all of a sudden start showing "Access denied". Access denied here means that you cannot authorize on remote Host, not issues with connectivity (which would explain why you can connect at some time and cannot at a different time).

Please, double check your Host authorization settings (Settings for Host -> Authorization) and make sure that you enter the correct password. Also, make sure that the connection mode you use is allowed on the Host side (in the Modes section/tab).

If all else fails let me know and we can have a remote session (connect to your Viewer PC) to see how exactly you log in to a remote PC or launch a connection mode.

Using "Simple update" from the updated viewer, or updating by downloading the MSI, and running install BREAKS older versions of the host at this point. My only solution was a complete uninstall, and reinstall of the latest host software.

We have one idea that we will try implementing in the very next RU update (6.10.4.0).  In a nutshell, we will see if we can gain complete control over the update process instead of delegating it to msiexec, which seems not to be very reliable. In theory this solution might help eliminate the update issues at least those not caused by antivirus software activity. However, this fix won't start working immediately, meaning that it will work for updating Hosts 6.10.4.0 and higher, and not the earlier Hosts for which the current update mechanism will still be used.

Again, the problem is not with "Simple update" per se. The problem is rather that the uninstall-install process isn't properly performed in certain circumstances my msiexec.

Hello Ashley,

I see you are trying to blame windows for the failed "installs" needing restarts, although i expected this, heres the thing no one of your other updates went this badley, all systems were up to date. Please advise.

Sorry, I am not trying to blame anything or anyone. We are just trying to find the root cause in each specific case. Unfortunately, we cannot reproduce the issue in our testing laboratory which means that there is either an external factor or (if it's still internal) it only manifests itself in certain circumstances.

Of external factors there are not too many,  mostly either antivirus software or issues with the service starting, or issues with the work of msiexec itself (e.g. missing msi cache because of the use of various "system cleaner" software). Here is one example - the notorious "Service has been marked for deletion" error https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20561990/how-to-solve-the-specified-service-has-been-marked-for-deletion-error

In order to help we must examine each support case and find the exact reason why re-installing (updating) Remote Utilities doesn't work on that specific machine. Note, that as I mentioned earlier in this thread the "Simple update' itself has nothing to do with this. Once the file is downloaded from the Amazon server (if it isn't your Host log will have an error line about it) then the installation process is run in the same way as if you ran it using the vanilla Host with "msiexec /i <file_path> /qn" command, no difference.

How do you explain a server that was running the HOST, then had this removed and the viewer installed (i manually logged in to the server and found it, the install date was the date i did the upgrade, so why did the "upgrade" remove the host then install the viewer?)

Running a Simple update on a remote Host cannot install the Viewer. This is something most unusual. There is a single link (source link) for downloading the Host package during simple update. If Simple update installed Viewer instead of Host this forum would be flooded with complaints and support requests. Version 6.10 has been around for almost three weeks now and there are thousands of updates already.

I have at least 2 servers (and i believe i will find another later today) that had the HOST removed and viewer installed, i have no idea why the "upgrade" would have done this. It results in "OFFLINE" in the viewer software (as it removed the host so does go offline)

However on removing the viewer then installing the HOST.MSI, i have to then manually restart the remote utilities service otherwise it gets stuck on "logging in".....

Would it be possible to schedule a remote session where you would run a simple update and reproduce the issue?

Hello Jurgen,

Thank you for your message.

Which program version do you use (Viewer and Host)? Also, dry install (or uninstall, if installed) the Host monitor driver. You can do so in Host settings -> Driver tab.

Hello Ashley,

Ive spent about 5 hours tonight trying to resolve what was supposed to be a "simple" upgrade, clearly this "major re-write" has some "major bugs", heres my findings so far..

Simple update is called "simple" because it really is - it just downloads the vanilla Host msi installer from the web and then runs it with a silent key/parameter. The Host installer is exactly the same file as available for manual download on the download page, except only it's distributed via Amazon Cloudfront servers for faster delivery.

If you have issues with Host service not starting after simple update, that may be due to various reasons but all of them have a "system" nature outside the product itself. Sometimes restart of the system may be required for the service to "kick in", and that in turn may depend on specific services policy on that computer.  Sometimes,

Recently, we had a support case with a customer who hadn't updated Windows for about a year and their Windows Defender engine (just the engine, not the threat databases, which was weird in itself) was outdated. Windows Defender prevented the Host service from starting after the update and not after the fresh install. Once they updated Windows (and Windows Defender for that matter) the problem was gone.

I highly recommend that you add the Host installation folder to antivirus software exceptions list to avoid future problems in this regard. Far too often modern antivirus software is incapable of distinguishing between a benign program and malware so it makes sense to think ahead and eliminate this problem before it arises.

= Not sure what they did to the keyboard, but i can no longer type in ANY VMWare console (vSphere client), they numbers work (top row) but the letters do not, again this was working fine in the past version, so what was changed to break VMWare vSphere client typing (which is 90% the reason i use this, its on a machien onsite that has vSphere or vCenter install to log in to 20 servers, now i cant log in to any of them as i cant type in to vSphere (even after restarts).

We added an additional keyboard input model and made it default. This model is used by any other top remote access software and it's kind of standard. However, you can still switch to old model for specific connections in your address book by selecting this checkbox:



Hope that helps.

Hello Jason,

The only software that is out of date is the host software on the client machine, which shouldn't effect this at all. For some reason, the viewer is still telling me that the host has a newer version available.

This information won't update until you log in on remote Host at least once. Since Viewer couldn't log in to Host it couldn't update its version information.

I'm considering doing a complete uninstall of all remote utilities apps from the physical machine, and then doing a clean install of the ones I need. I will add an update, when I can do it (right now someone is using that display), to let you know if this works.

Regarding your initial post. It seems like you installed both modules on both computers on each side of connection. You do not have to do that actually. Unlike many other similar software Remote Utilities has separate modules for each task. Viewer is installed on the computer you work from and Host is installed on the remote computer. I.e. you don' t have to also install the Viewer on the remote computer if you do not intended to remote from that computer at some point in time, but even then you can simply install the Viewer when you really need it.  

I'm considering doing a complete uninstall of all remote utilities apps from the physical machine, and then doing a clean install of the ones I need. I will add an update, when I can do it (right now someone is using that display), to let you know if this works.

When you do complete re-install of Host you can also wipe the registry entry where the Host settings are stored. It's HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Usoris\Remote Utilities Host\

You can also refer to this complete uninstall guide.

Hi Jason,

No problem. We are always happy to help.

Hello Stephen,

If this is the latest version of Remote Utilities, please try enabling "Use legacy keyboard input model" in connection properties:



Let us know if the issue persists.

Hello Kelly,

Yes, the remote computer which you want to access should have Host installed. The computer you work from should have Viewer installer.

https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/host/
https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/viewer/