You cannot start Remote Assistance in Live Communicator 2005 on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 SP1

If you try to start Remote Assistance in Microsoft Office Live Communicator 2005 on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Remote Assistance does not start. This issue occurs even if you enable Remote Assistance in a Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 policy.

This behavior occurs because Remote Assistance is disabled. By default, Remote Assistance is disabled both in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows Server 2003 SP1.

To resolve this behavior, enable Remote Assistance. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. In the Systems Properties dialog box, click the Remote tab.
3. In the Remote Assistance area, click to select the Turn on Remote Assistance and allow invitations to be sent from this computer check box, and then click OK.

This behavior is by design.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Install Windows Server 2003.
2. Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Windows Messenger.
3. On the File menu, click Sign In.
   
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4. On the Actions menu, notice that the Ask for Remote Assistance command is not available.