People argue about which remote tool is "best" as if they were interchangeable. They are not. One logs you into your own private session, one sits beside the user on their live screen, and the third-party tools trade built-in trust for reach. Here is the honest grading.
The video above makes one distinction most tutorials skip: MSTSC and MSRA do not do the same job. Remote Desktop hands you a machine. Remote Assistance hands you a seat next to its owner. AnyDesk and TeamViewer enter the picture when consent-based help needs to cross the open internet or other operating systems. This page grades all four honestly — including where the built-in tools lose, because pretending otherwise helps no one pick correctly.
Illustrative comparison panel. The right question is never which tool is best, but which promise your situation needs.
Choose RDP when the PC or server is yours to run: office servers, a work desktop you left behind, anything headless. You sign in and get your own session — the physical screen locks, which is correct behaviour for private work. The costs: the machine being connected INTO needs Windows Pro or Server editions, and it is the wrong tool for helping a person, because the person disappears behind a lock screen and cannot watch, learn or approve anything.
Choose MSRA when a human is sitting at the PC and the job is support: your session joins their screen, they invite you, approve you twice, watch everything and can end it instantly. It is built into Windows, free, and — as the video points out — acceptable in organisations that ban third-party tools. Its honest weaknesses: no unattended access ever, Windows only, and connections across awkward home routers and the open internet can fail because there is no relay server helping.
Choose these when the connection must simply work — across the internet, across NAT and firewalls, or onto Mac and Linux machines. Their relay servers solve the connection problem MSRA sometimes cannot, and paid tiers add unattended access for fleets. The honest costs: another company’s software sits on both PCs, free tiers restrict or flag suspected commercial use, and some banks and enterprises ban them outright for exactly that reason. The tools are legitimate — the risk, as always, is who you let in.
If MSRA feels dated, Quick Assist is where Microsoft steers people now: the helper generates a short security code, the person being helped enters it and approves screen sharing, with a further approval for full control. It relays through Microsoft, so it connects across the internet more reliably than MSRA, and it is free. It dropped some of MSRA’s old-world charm — no invitation files — and needs the current Store app version on both sides. For family tech support across cities, it is often the pragmatic pick.
The video demonstrates both built-in tools on real screens — the lock-screen moment alone explains why they exist side by side.
▶️ Watch Full VideoThree practical reasons: nothing third-party needs installing or licensing on thousands of PCs, the customer or employee must actively invite and approve the session so consent is built into the process, and their security teams only have to trust software that ships inside Windows itself. For support desks working under strict compliance, that combination is worth more than convenience features.
If their PC and yours behave, MSRA works and teaches good habits. In real homes, Quick Assist usually wins on reliability because Microsoft relays the connection, so router quirks matter less. Whichever you choose, keep the same rules: you invite or they invite, passwords travel by voice, and the session ends with a click either of you can make.
AnyDesk, TeamViewer, MSRA and Quick Assist are all abused by scammers for the same reason screwdrivers appear in burglaries — they are common and they work. The tool is not the danger; an uninvited operator is. A remote session you requested, from a person you know, with approvals you control, is legitimate support in any of these tools.