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This page provides an overview of some of the key features included in NetSupport Manager. Please refer to the individual platform "tabs" above for a full list of functionality available within the product.

Remote Control of a PC

Watch, Share or Control the screen, keyboard and mouse of a workstation irrespective of colour depth, resolution, network protocol or operating system. Use the Audio functions on multimedia capable PCs' to talk to your users while providing support. NetSupport Manager is consistently recognized in comparative reviews as offering the fastest remote control performance available.

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Monitoring Systems with Interactive Thumbnails

The Monitor Mode feature allows a Control to display a "Thumbnail" view of all connected Client workstations simultaneously. Thumbnail size can be adjusted on the fly, as can the update interval. In addition, the Control users can mouseover a specific thumbnail for an expanded view of the selected PC. This provides a unique feature within Remote Control solutions to allow an IT manager to keep a constant eye over critical systems and immediately identify if systems need intervention. The View also provides key information such as OS type , network address, the current logged on user and the computer name for easy identification.

If the client is running multiple monitors, the Control can switch between desktops.

Auto-Grouping of Remote Systems

The Control Tree View provides an instant overview of your IT infrastructure by grouping the remote systems based on pre-defined criteria such as Platform and Operating System. For example, you can easily identify machines running a particular Windows OS or Linux Distribution. This is particularly helpful when planning upgrades or the rollout of new technology.

Support for Intel vPro Technology

NetSupport Manager can browse for and locate PCs that have Intel® vPro™ capability enabling you to perform a variety of remote tasks even where a NetSupport Manager Client isn’t installed.

Hardware and Software Inventories

Obtain a real-time view of the hardware and software installed on the target workstation at the click of a button, without ever needing to leave the NetSupport Control program to gather this information. NetSupport Manager collects over 80 items of information, specifically about the hardware or environment of the Client PC. A full inventory of current installed applications is also provides as well as installed hotfixes. To aid in remote support and diagnostics, you can also remotely view, and security permitting control, applications in memory, processes running and installed services.

File Transfer and Distribution

File Transfer:
Transfer and manipulate files between workstations using a simple "drag & drop" interface, even drop a file directly onto the desktop when viewing a remote machine. Synchronise directories on two workstations or edit files and attributes directly. NetSupport Manager utilises intelligent "Delta File Transfer" to reduce data transfer times when overwriting files that already exist by checking individual blocks of data within a file and only transferring changed data. This feature is enabled by default and applies to all file types. The performance benefits are most noticeable on slower connections.

File Distribution:
Distribute files and data from a central NetSupport workstation to multiple Client workstations simultaneously and with a minimum of keystrokes and effort. Using this feature, you are able to Distribute files to:

• All connected Clients;
• Selected Clients;
• A pre-defined Group of Clients.
• Quick & easy transfer of files direct to the Client 'Desktop' or 'My Documents' folder

Explorer Desktop Integration

When a NetSupport Manager control is installed onto a PC, it integrates directly with explorer, allowing you to launch key functionality direct from your system without needing to first start NetSupport.

A typical example would be within Network places, where on viewing a list of PCs on the network, by selecting the PC icon and using right mouse click, NetSupport Remote Control, Chat and Inventory options are available to launch.

Remote Desktop (RDP) Support

NetSupport Manager co-exists with RDP by detecting if there is an active RDP session. The user is provided with the option to either continue in screen scrape mode or disconnect the RDP session for full remote control capability.

Remote Deployment

The NSD utility (NetSupport Deploy) provides Network Administrators with the facility to install and configure NetSupport Manager on multiple workstations from a central site without the need to visit the machines individually.

• Remotely Install a NetSupport package on multiple workstations simultaneously.
• Create and download specific Client Configurations to multiple workstations.
• Remotely update NetSupport License details on multiple workstations.
• Remotely Uninstall a NetSupport package from multiple workstations simultaneously.

Show Function

Use the powerful Show function to conduct computer-based training without the need for overhead projectors, video splitters or any additional hardware. Show your Screen, a selected monitor or just a selected application to any number of connected computers in real-time. Utilise a range of on screen annotation to tools to aid in your presentation or training.

Scripting and Scheduling

NetSupport includes a powerful Scripting Language and Scheduler that allows you to automate the tasks you would normally perform repetitively in the NetSupport Control and run them at a time when most convenient to you. Scripting contains a wealth of Desktop Management functions including the ability to interrogate Clients and retrieve information such as free disk space; what operating system they are running.

You can even use NetSupport Scripting to distribute applications by using a combination of File Transfer, Remotely Execute Applications and edit the Registry. In simple terms, anything you can do manually with NetSupport Manager, you can do automatically with NetSupport Scripting.

Power Management

If your workstation hardware and software supports "Wake on Lan", you can use NetSupport to Power on / off your workstations over the LAN. Ideal if needing to copy data to a machine that is turned off.

Printer Redirection

The latest release includes improvements to capturing client print output including support for Network and USB printers. NetSupport Manager now also uses the WMI service (available on XP and above) to create a ""Standard TCP/IP Port"" which it uses to provide print capture support. The Implementation on Window 2000 clients is similar but as the WMI Service is not available as standard the registry is updated by Manager to add the ""Standard TCP/IP Port.

64Bit Support

NetSupport Manager supports remote control of all x64 (AMD / Intel) platforms, including Windows XP64 and Windows 2003

Chat and Audio Support

Conduct a two way chat session between selected multiple users in either text or full audio mode.

Should the Chat member not respond, you can send an audible beep to each workstation by selecting "Send Beep". Use the "Invite" function to add Clients when the Chat session is in progress and send a copy of the Chat progress by using the Send discussion history option. The contents of a Chat session can be stored for future reference.

NetSupport Manager also offers Bi-Directional Audio - extended audio support allowing one way talk, listen and full bi-directional audio conversations outside of a remote control session as well as seamless streaming of the remote PCs audible application sounds. Audio support is available over all LAN/WAN and Internet based communications.

Interactive Whiteboard

To both aid training and the effectiveness of support, a Whiteboard feature is now available from within a chat / multi-chat session. Similar to Annotate, the Control is able to use a range of screen highlighting tools to visually support their text chat with invited users.

Launch Applications

NetSupport Manager includes the Launch Application feature that allows you to remotely start applications on a remote PC, start installer routines and much more.

This feature combined with File Distribution, provides a quick and effective means of providing remote updates.

Messaging

Send a NetSupport text message to one or more chosen PC's, or even broadcast to all PCs on the network. Ideal for alerting your users of an impending server shutdown or similar.

Help Requests

Enable your NetSupport users to send help requests directly to your helpdesk when they need assistance. The help request can either be sent to all available Operators, or directed to specific operators based on user defined accounts.