Microsoft recently announced the retirement of the integrated Quick Assist application within the Windows operating system, set to take effect in May 2022. Quick Assist is a remote assistance application commonly used for providing or receiving help, especially by technicians assisting an organization’s workforce.
In place of Quick Assist, Microsoft plans to introduce a new version available on the Microsoft Store. Users attempting to launch Quick Assist on their devices are now prompted to download the updated version from the Microsoft Store.
The decision to retire Quick Assist was made to allow for more efficient patching of security and other issues in the future, according to Microsoft.
However, the change has faced criticism from administrators on two main points. Firstly, the installation of the new Quick Assist version requires administrative privileges. Secondly, there’s uncertainty about whether Quick Assist is available on user devices, necessitating additional steps to ensure the new version is installed.
Microsoft has rolled out a new Windows 10 version 22H2 build and a new Windows 11 build to the Release Preview Insider channel, incorporating the new Microsoft Store Quick Assist application as a native app within the operating system.
This new version will replace the now outdated classic Quick Assist on the target system, allowing users to access it via the Start Menu or a dedicated keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-Windows-Q.
The planned changes indicated in the Release Preview are expected to be implemented soon in stable versions of Windows 10 and 11. While Microsoft has not specified a timeline for this, Windows users can manually install the Microsoft Store application to access Quick Assist immediately.
For more information, you can refer to the Insider Preview build announcements for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Image Update: rawf8/shutterstock
