By default, Windows XP and Vista has a "feature" enabled called Remote Assistance.

While this may come in handy for some company to allow remote technical support for their PC's, for the average home user this feature will probably never be used and is actually a security risk which may potentially allow an opportunity for hackers to gain access to their computers.

So I would recommend to turn-off this service to as another way to help improve security on your computer. Turning off this service may also help in adding a little bit of additional performance to your PC as well as it's one less unnecessary service that would be wasting some system resources otherwise.

For Windows XP, an easy way to do this is to click on the "Start" button, then select "Run", then enter in the following command: "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes).

The System Properties control panel should appear. Click on the "Remote" tab.
You will see a check-box next to a sentence that reads "Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer". If there is a check-mark in the box, be sure to remove it so it's not checked. (See picture below of what this should look like):


Once you have ensured there is no check-mark in the box, then click "OK" to close.
Well, there you have it, just one more way to help keep your computer safer.
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For Windows Vista, it's a similar procedure. You can do the following steps to disable Remote Assistance:

1. Click Start, and select Control Panel.
2. Within the Control Panel, System and Maintenance.
3. Click System.
4. From the list of tasks, click Remote Settings.
5. Under Remote Assistance, remove the check-mark beside the option to Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer.
6. Click OK.

If for some reason you ever needed to enable the Remote Assistance feature again, simply go back into the System Properties again the same way and then add the check-mark in the box. But chances are if you're using a home computer, you'll probably never need to use this service.

Stay safe. Cheers!

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