Script Execution Solution in TeamViewer 14

Esther
Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager
edited April 2023 in Blog

Script execution.png

One-click Script Execution and Access in a Remote Session with TeamViewer 14

With its new one-click solution for remote script execution, TeamViewer 14 cuts down on tedious and repetitive tasks, allowing you to standardize and speed up IT support processes. By standardizing and automating your support tasks, remote script execution saves valuable time and can directly result in reduced resolution times.

Providing remote support and maintenance solutions to a large number of users can be a giant task. With so many devices to monitor under time pressure, efficiency is the cornerstone of providing a reliable service. TeamViewer 14’s new remote script execution feature is designed to tackle this issue head-on, giving you and your team the tools to rapidly resolve issues uniformly.

Remote Script Execution Features

TeamViewer 14 allows you to store and manage script files centrally in the Management Console and then execute them during any remote session, from any PC. With these scripts, you can automate a wide variety of computational tasks throughout your network of remote Windows or macOS devices, including (but not limited to):

  • Moving or copying files and folders
  • Reading and adjusting configurations - such as network, firewall or permissions configurations - for individual computers and across a network
  • Installing software
  • Running programs and updates

This new feature eliminates the need to manually upload and execute script files while you are in a remote session: instead, you can access all the scripts in the Management Console via the new script menu – anytime, anywhere. You can now execute numerous tasks included in your scripts with just one click, rather than having to manually repeat the same process in all your sessions.  

tv14-scripting_alternative.png

How Does it Work?

Storage and management

Upload your choice of scripts to the TeamViewer Management Console and they will be encrypted and stored securely in the cloud. You can also edit your scripts from the Management Console at any time, such as by changing the name, description, or the ‘run as administrator’ field. If a particular script has a command that needs admin rights, checking the ‘run as administrator’ means you will be asked for admin credentials once, right before execution – this can be particularly useful for long-running tasks. TeamViewer 14 supports batch and PowerShell script types on Windows, as well as Shell on macOS. 

Scrpt_Blog1.png

 

Access and execution

When you’re in a remote session, you can now access any of the scripts you’ve uploaded instantly from the new script menu in the client toolbar.

Windows

 

tv14-scripting.png

 

macOS

Script_Blog3.png

 

Simply click a script to execute it; the script will be automatically downloaded to the remote machine from the cloud, decrypted, and then run. The process is extremely straightforward and intuitive, but you will need to consider permission handling. Normally, scripts can only be executed if the user on the remote side gives permission once per session, which will not be possible for unattended devices. Fortunately, TeamViewer 14 provides a new ‘Allow script execution without confirmation’ setting to circumvent this issue.

Check out our latest version here: TeamViewer 14 Preview!

Former Community Manager

«1

Comments

  • MP-AU
    MP-AU Posts: 4

    Will this feature be available for customers who are on the Business License?

  • Heike
    Heike Posts: 1 Staff member 🤠

    Yes, @MP-AU you can upload up to 5 scripts with your business license.

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Thank you for your feedback, @PD-IT! We will take your request into consideration for our next plannings.

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • bovertech
    bovertech Posts: 1
    Nice feature. Will TeamViewer make available some usable scripts? We're not all programmers... Thank you.
  • websafe
    websafe Posts: 15 ✭✭

    Without an option for allowing script execution via policies this option is nice, but in my case - useless. So enabling this option via policies is a must :-)

  • Does TV 13 allow the use of Powershell Scripts?    Not sure if upgrading is really an option at this point. 

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @kdbrich

    "Does TV 13 allow the use of Powershell Scripts? Not sure if upgrading is really an option at this point."

    With TeamViewer 13 it is only possible to use FileTransfer to copy a script and execute it afterwards on the remote side.

    New with TeamViewer 14: you can upload your often used scripts (e.g. PowerShell) only once encrypted in the Management Console and execute them directly in every session (restricted to >= TV 14.0 on the remote side).


    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • So then, I wonder, can one execute those scripts via the TeamViewer api?   If I create an application on my side, can I hit the API to fire off remote scripts on machines?   

  • Hi TeamViewer staff.

    Can you explain this more in detail please ? 

    "In addition, you can now execute numerous tasks on multiple machines with just one click, rather than having to manually repeat the same process for all your hardware. For example, previously if you wanted to install software on several machines at once you would have to do it one by one. With TeamViewer 14 you simply have to select the relevant script from the script menu and automation will take care of the rest. "

    I have tested the script fonction, it's nice but i have to connect to the computer before execute a script from the cloud.

    Is it possible to execute a script on several computers at a time from the Management Console ? I need this feature for distant mass provissioning (ex : install third party software on 100 computers with a few clicks).

    Best regards, Nicolas.
    OpenXtrem France

  • felkr
    felkr Posts: 6

    Is an open end started Remote Session needed? Or is it possible to run scripts in silent mode like with the Filetransfer?

     

     

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    @kdbrich: An access via the API is currently not possible. But I will note this feature request and check if it might go to a future release. Thank you for this!

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    @oxadmin and @felkr, thank you for your interest in our new feature and for your questions!

    The description on the top was somehow confusing - sorry for this, we have corrected it.

    Currently it is possible to upload a set of scripts in the Management Console and reuse those within each session. If it's a long running script, you can terminate the session without stopping the execution, of course.

    It's not yet available to execute a script without a session in silent, the same for the execution on many devices at the same time. Both are known feature request and we will take your request into consideration for our next plannings.

    If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact me!

    Best, Kerstin

     

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • When trying to run execute OneClick Remote Scripts, TeamViewer reports that the script has been exited with code 0. I have set the powershell execution policy to unrestricted. Powershell window opens and exits very quickly. Any help is appreciated.

  • Try this commend like a normal user:

    Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted

  • LJReid
    LJReid Posts: 1

    Im getting a script error message when I exit Teamviewer 14

    Line: 1

    Char: 56

    Error: Unable to get property "href" of defined or null reference

    Code: 0

    How do fix this?

  • MikaelH
    MikaelH Posts: 2 ✭✭

    So where is the policy to allow this?...
    Useless without it..

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @MikaelH ,

    thanks for your feedback.

     

     

    Actually, since TeamViewer version 14.2 we moved the first permission checkbox to the access controls and with this support a policy also for the script exection (incoming and outgoing connection). Just go in the Management Console to Design & Deploy -> Policies -> Edit or Add and you should be able to see the permission setting for "Execute scripts".MCO_policies.PNG

    Please do not forget to change the setting for incoming and outgoing connections (depending on the use case).

    Does this solve your question? If you have any more questions or feedback, do not hesitate to answer.

    Best,

    Kerstin

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • MikaelH
    MikaelH Posts: 2 ✭✭

    "Full access" won't give you Execute scripts rights...
    Changing to Custom and setting "Execute scripts" (Allowed)-Force don't work. (for me.)

    Dialog still shows up, policy synced, even reinstalled the OS.

     

  • @MikaelH I'm having the exact same issue and I can't seem to find any resolutions on the forums...

  • LC7
    LC7 Posts: 1
    Same issue with me, the dialog prevents me from running a script, Execution allowed, TV version 14.4.2669 on both sides.
  • Dutch-Valley
    Dutch-Valley Posts: 2 ✭✭

    @Esther  and @Kerstin_PO 

    Our company is seeing this issue as well. Full Access still has the script flag set for "After confirmation". Setting to Custom and setting the script flag to "Allow" still gives the prompt that we can't interact. Version 14.5

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @MikaelH , @Dakota-ITech , @LC7 , @Dutch-Valley ,

    do you have Custom settings for the access control and "allow" on the client side set for outgoing connections as well as on the remote side for the incomming connections. It's necessary to touch both sides.

    If you have set both sides correctly and the script execution still needs the confirmation, could you please provide me the log files from client and remote side (go to Extras > open log files...) in a private message? We will check then if we can find any reason for that.

    I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and I hope, that we can solve the issue as soon as possible for you. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to ask.

    Best,

    Kerstin

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • Dutch-Valley
    Dutch-Valley Posts: 2 ✭✭

    @Kerstin_PO Thanks for your prompt reply. After looking at the outboud settings on my PC and the inbound settings on the remote PC, I was able to get this to work. I was missing the part that permissions need to be changed for both sides.

    So on the PC giving support the outboud permissions must be set to Custom and have allow set for scripts. On the PC recieving support the inbound permissions need to be set to custom and have allow set for scripts. The second part can be done by policy. Is my wording correct?

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @Dutch-Valley ,

    your wording is correct besides outbound is called "Advanced settings for connections to other computers" and inbound is called "Advanced settings for connections to this computers" (at least in the options dialogue, for the Management Console it's "Access Control (incoming connections)" and "Access Control (outgoing connections)").

    It's also possible to set the permission for the "outbound" settings via policies, if necessary.

    Best,

    Kerstin

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • valkyriebiker
    valkyriebiker Posts: 21 ✭✭

    Premium TV License here.
    Near end: TV 15.5.3
    Far end: TV 15.5.3 H

    The confirmation box is vexing me as well. I'm seeing a script confirmation dialog that must be answered locally (e.g. cannot answer remotely) even though I've set "full access" on the endpoint.

    How on earth can I be expected to run scripts on unattended boxes with this flaw? It makes this feature utterly useless for me.

    Yes, there's workarounds. e.g. I can simply transfer my batch file then run it locally. But that's a lot of repetitive clicks as I need to do that on dozens of endpoints. TV scripts is supposed to solve that.

    ???

    thanks.

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @valkyriebiker ,

    thank you for your feedback.
    I can understand that using the feature with that message on the unattended device does not work. And it was not meant to work like this.

    If the settings are done correctly for the "connection to other computers" on client side and the "connections to this computers" on the remote (unattended) side it is supposed to work without a message to confirm.

    Have you set the settings manually in the client or have you done it via policies in the Management Console?
    In the Management Console there was a problem when using an old policy and updating that. But this should be fixed since several months. If you are still using an old updated policy, maybe you can just try to update and save the policy once again?

    If it's still not working, please provide me some more details on how the settings are done and look like or create a support ticket so that we can collect the log files and have a deeper look into it.

    I hope, we can fix that soon for you as well.

    Best,

    Kerstin

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • valkyriebiker
    valkyriebiker Posts: 21 ✭✭

    Hi @Kerstin_PO thanks for the rapid reply

    I'm not using management console policies (maybe I should?). I typically manually install TV Host and ensure Full Access is selected on the Advanced screen.

    Edit to add: OK, after much putzing around, I've figured this out. "Full Access" doesn't mean Full Access after all. Auto-enable of scripts is the one feature that the Full Access template doesn't do what it's name suggests. So I used "Custom settings" in the Access Control drop-down menu so I could choose "Allowed" for that one thing, "Execute scripts". IMO, that's rather silly.

    This means I'll need to use management policies to push that out since the default Full Access doesn't allow auto-enabled scripts.

    Furthermore, as I discovered, I also needed to change *my* end to allow scripts for connections to other computers. Again, by choosing "Custom" instead of "Full Access".

    I have to say, that's a lot of moving parts to make this work. Not very elegant, IMO, but it's working now.

    thanks.

     

  • Kerstin_PO
    Kerstin_PO Posts: 78 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @valkyriebiker ,

    thanks for the feedback.

    Glad to hear, that it is at least working now.

    I will take your valuable feedback with me and will try to improve in a next version.

    For the remote side it was not included in the Full Access due to security concerns as with scripts you can do a lot of damage and we did not want to include it by default especially for older installations. But maybe we can rethink that behavior for the future.

    Best,

    Kerstin

    Product Owner TeamViewer Core
  • valkyriebiker
    valkyriebiker Posts: 21 ✭✭

    Hi @Kerstin_PO 

    Yep, I appreciate that scripts can be maliciously used (or not) to cause damage. But I would submit that anyone skilled enough to write a script to do such damage is already plenty capable of causing harm using other methods. e.g. Disabling user input, opening a local cmd prompt, and pasting in a string of commands -- all possible using TV QS which is scriptless AFAIK. Most endusers would have no idea what is going on and would not stop it.

    I appreciate that TV wants to minimize the ability to use a TV-provided function (scripts) for such activity. But as is usually the case, well-meaning use also gets limited while not really making anything more secure.

    Thanks again for your help and rapid replies. One of the many reasons I've been a licensed TV user for 10+ years.