How to Disable the ESC key in Microsoft Windows Remote Assistance

One annoying problem with Remote Assistance it the mapping of the ESC key. Pressing the ESC key ends your control of the remote computer requiring you to request control again.

I use Microsoft Windows Remote Assistance once in a while to remotely support some users. It generally works pretty well if you do not have to go through a firewall. One annoying problem with Remote Assistance it the mapping of the ESC key. Pressing the ESC key ends your control of the remote computer requiring you to request control again. This occurs both locally and remotely. Most of the time this is not too bad as I can avoid the ESC key and only hit it once in a while by habit.

On a recent support incident I needed to use the ESC key repeatedly. This got old really quickly. As there is not a user interface way to change this configuration I got to work researching this. I found the following solution, I hope it helps others. The original source of this tidbit is currently unknown.

1. Edit the following file: %WINDIR%\pchealth\helpctr\System\Remote Assistance\Interaction\Server
2. Comment out the following two lines using // The line numbers are based on Windows XP SP3
   1. Line 270 > g_objPanic = new ActiveXObject( “SAFRCFileDlg.Panic” );
   2. Line 273 > g_objPanic.SetPanicHook(Stop_Control);
3. Edit the following line changing false to true.
   1. Line 303 > frames.idFrameTools.idStopControl.disabled = false;

Save the file and re-start your remote session if needed