How to close a TV Host instance on a client's computer ?

damagro · 2021-02-10T10:02:48+00:00

There was an error rendering this rich post.

damagro

We install TeamViewer QS with our own software on our clients' computer.

When one of our clients call by phone for help, we ask him or her to click on the TeamViewer QS icon.

But some time the following message:

Another instance of TeamViewer is already running

Please close this instance before restarting TeamViewer.

Well, it's usually an instance automatically launched by an other software or hardware support.

We know what to tell to the client to show or quit this other instance when it's a TeamViewer QS.

But it happen that this other TeamViewer instance is a TeamViewer Host instance.

My question is how can I guide my client by phone to quit the TeamViewer Host running instance ?

(Our clients work usually on Windows 10 computers.)

Thanks a lot before hand,

damagro

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

damagro

Hi Natascha,

Thank you very much for your illustrated answer.

The trouble we encounter is that sometimes there's no "Exit TeamViewer" option to click, on the contextual menu.

We usually ask our customers to list, loudly, all the options shown on the contextual menu, when right-clicking on the TeamViewer icon.

And sometimes there's no "Exit TeamViewer" option.

So, we ask them to look again for "Exit TeamViewer" option, especially on the bottom of the list, and sometimes they say there's no such option.

It's for these cases that we need help.

So, is it possible that in some TeamViewer Host installation there's no "Exit TeamViewer" option when right-clicking on the TeamViewer icon?

If yes, how can we tell our customers to exit TeamViewer on such situation ?

Thanks a lot before hand,

damagro

Natascha

Hi @damagro

Thanks for getting back.

Since you said that these are Host installations of other support companies, there might be the case that they assigned the devices to their TeamViewer accounts and applied a policy called Disable TeamViewer shutdown. After that you are not able to exit TeamViewer anymore.

Would it be possible to ask your clients if this is the case? Maybe they can discuss that with the other support companies.

Hope this could help.

All the best,

Natascha 😊

All comments

damagro

Hi Natascha,

Thank you very much for your accurate answer.

> Since you said that these are Host installations of other support companies, there might be the case that they assigned the devices to their TeamViewer accounts and applied a policy called Disable TeamViewer shutdown. After that you are not able to exit TeamViewer anymore. <

OK, that's what we needed to know.

> Would it be possible to ask your clients if this is the case? <

Yes it's the case.

> Maybe they can discuss that with the other support companies. <

OK.

> Hope this could help. <

Yes, it helps, in the sense that now we know in these cases, it useless to spend long time to search for the "Exit TeamViewer" option.

All the best to you too.

Kind regards

Natascha

Hi @damagro

Thank you for your post, the really detailed and understandable description of the case and welcome to our community 😊

Please guide your clients to the task bar. They will find the TeamViewer icon either directly there

or they need to first click on the little arrow to open the dropdown for further tasks

By right-clicking the TeamViewer icon, you are then able to exit the TeamViewer application properly. This will work for the full version as well as for the Host.

Hope this could help. Let me know if I may assist any further.

All the best,

Natascha 🙋‍♀️

Natascha

Hi @damagro

Thank you for your nice answer. 😊

I hope you will find a solution with your clients and their additional support companies.

Please let me know if there are any further questions. I'm happy to help.

Wish you a great day and stay safe! 🍀

Best,

Natascha

valkyriebiker

Sorry, but the answer given here, although workable, gives a bad experience to everyone involved.

It puts the onus on the remote end user to follow a click stream being dictated to them by the analyst seeking remote access to assist the client. And if the remote end user is sufficiently UI illiterate (it happens a lot) then a lot of time can/will be wasted guiding them on exiting an existing TV instance.

To wit: The TV icon might not be on the visible part of the tray. Then the analyst needs to explain how to reveal hidden tray items. And in any event, the analyst will need to describe what the microscopic icon looks like. My usual verbiage is a well-practiced "it's a blue icon with a white circle with a double-pointed arrow". Sometimes they find it right away, other times not. I've spent *several minutes* many, many times explaining how to terminate a TV instance.

Long ago when I first bought and started using TV (10+ years), it was pretty uncommon to encounter TV in the wild. But as TV as become very popular, I see it in the wild almost daily. Imagine having to explain this manual exit process every time a client needs my remote services. No thanks.

Instead, the TV devs should have coded the TVQS module to automatically integrate with any existing TV instance so it'll simply display the needed dialog without the inelegant process suggested here. Preferably by hitching a ride on the existing TV instance via an API.

To accomplish that functionality, I wrote a wrapper around the TVQS module that looks for a previous TV instance (and kills it), starts my TVQS module, then when I'm done and I terminate TVQS, the wrapper dutifully restarts the previous instance.

Problem Solved. Works perfectly. But I should not have had to do it in the first place.

How easy all our our lives would be had the TV devs done this for us.

TV devs, please come up with something more elegant.

thanks.

Natascha

Hi @valkyriebiker

Thank you for your comment. 😊

First of all, I can fully understand your point and concern. But please try to have a look at it from a different point of view.

Imagine you need to make sure that you - and only you - are the one who is able to access a device - e.g. due to security reasons. Would not make sense in this case to bypass the Host installation and its settings with the QuickSupport module.

Therefore, I really appreciate that you developed a solution for you with the wrapper around the QS module. If this works in your cases - perfect 👍

Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist with. Wish you a great day.

All the best,

Natascha 🙋‍♀️

valkyriebiker

Hi @Natascha ,

"Imagine you need to make sure that you - and only you - are the one who is able to access a device - e.g. due to security reasons. Would not make sense in this case to bypass the Host installation and its settings with the QuickSupport module."

Yes, I agree. This is why I believe that TVQS should cooperatively communicate with TVH via an API so as to allow an ad-hoc support session (via TVQS) without having to terminate TVH.

That's why my wrapper automatically restarts TV (or TVH) upon completion of a TVQS session thereby leaving things as it found them, so to speak.

It would be nice if this functionality were already baked-in. 😊

thanks..!

Natascha

@valkyriebiker

Thank you for the nice answer 😊 I will forward your feedback to the colleagues from the responsible department.

Have a great weekend and all the best,

Natascha

wakerunner

The solution to this would be to allow multiple Teamviewer clients running at the same time, so the computer user does not have to close the already running client to start your client. We run into this all the time and this is the main reason we are looking at other solutions, we often spend more time walking people by phone how to shut down their Teamviewer client than we spend fixing the actual issue they called us about. **Third Party Product** allows multiple clients to be ran at the same time, if TV doesn't have this feature soon we will probably be switching.

damagro

Hi Natascha,

Thank you very much for your illustrated answer.

The trouble we encounter is that sometimes there's no "Exit TeamViewer" option to click, on the contextual menu.

We usually ask our customers to list, loudly, all the options shown on the contextual menu, when right-clicking on the TeamViewer icon.

And sometimes there's no "Exit TeamViewer" option.

So, we ask them to look again for "Exit TeamViewer" option, especially on the bottom of the list, and sometimes they say there's no such option.

It's for these cases that we need help.

So, is it possible that in some TeamViewer Host installation there's no "Exit TeamViewer" option when right-clicking on the TeamViewer icon?

If yes, how can we tell our customers to exit TeamViewer on such situation ?

Thanks a lot before hand,

damagro

Natascha

Hi @damagro

Thanks for getting back.

Would it be possible to ask your clients if this is the case? Maybe they can discuss that with the other support companies.

Hope this could help.

All the best,

Natascha 😊