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Remote Control guide

Remote Control lets you temporarily grant a viewer control of a browser tab or selected area of your screen during a CrankWheel session. The viewer doesn’t need to download software or create an account. Only the presenter installs the helper application.

This page is intended as a guide for users interested in enabling and using the Remote Control feature.

Please note that Remote Control is available for presenters using both Windows and macOS. Viewers can join from any modern web browser on desktop or mobile devices without installing software or creating an account. On some accounts, administrators may have disabled the Remote Control feature.

Installation

To use the Remote Control feature, a small helper application must be installed on the presenter’s Windows or macOS computer.

We recommend installing this application before trying to use Remote Control the first time.

Windows Installation

Note: This video currently demonstrates the Windows version. Remote Control is now also available for macOS. Updated videos covering both operating systems are coming soon.

Please click here for a video showing the steps for installation.

If you prefer written instructions:

  1. Click this link to download the helper program.

  2. Once the download completes, click the button at the bottom of your browser that indicates the download, to run the installer.

  3. If you see a blue dialog saying “Windows protected your PC”, click “More info” near the top of that dialog and then the “Run anyway” button. This dialog may be shown by Windows in cases where the helper program has recently been updated and has only been installed by a few people. This is a heuristic that Windows uses to prevent against unwanted downloads, but it is safe to ignore the warning for the CrankWheel helper.

  4. You will see a small dialog saying “Installation of CrankWheel Helper Program is complete”. Click OK and you are ready to use Remote Control.

macOS Installation

If you prefer written instructions:

  1. Click this link to download the helper installer.

  2. Once the download completes, open the downloaded CrankWheelHelper.pkg file to start the installer.

  3. If you see a message saying the file “cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” or “Apple could not verify” the app, open the Apple menu, go to System Settings, click “Privacy & Security”, scroll down to the Security section, and click “Open Anyway” next to the CrankWheel Helper message. This can happen when the helper has recently been updated. It is safe to open the CrankWheel helper.

  4. Follow the steps in the installer and click through to the end. When the installer says the installation was successful, you are ready to use Remote Control.

Completing installation during a session

If you have already started a screen sharing session and you want to grant control during the session, it is possible to complete the installation while the session is ongoing.

Note: This video currently demonstrates the Windows version. Remote Control is now also available for macOS. Updated videos covering both operating systems are coming soon.

This video shows how.

Usage

Grant control while sharing a browser tab

Please watch this video for a walkthrough of how to do this.

If you prefer written instructions:

  1. While sharing a browser tab with a single viewer, hover over the preview window and click the “Grant control” button.

  2. Your browser may show a prompt asking to open the CrankWheel helper (for example “Open CrankWheelHelperProgram?” on Windows, or “Open CrankWheelHelper?” on macOS). We recommend putting a checkmark next to “Always allow” and then clicking Open or OK, to avoid seeing this prompt every time. Or if you prefer, just click Open or OK to allow launching the helper application.

  3. You will see a small dialog box, prompting you “Do you want to enable remote control in your current screen sharing session?”. Click the “Yes” button to allow. You will only see this prompt for the first time that you grant remote control during any given screen sharing session. If you end remote control and then later grant it again during the same session, you will not be prompted.

  4. You will see a prompt asking you to click within the browser tab you wish to grant control over. Click anywhere within the browser tab, and you should see a red and orange blinking border around the contents of the browser tab, indicating that your viewer now has remote control.

  5. To end remote control, click the “End Remote Control” button in the CrankWheel pop-up window, or hit the keyboard shortcut indicated in the CrankWheel pop-up window (usually Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E on Windows, or Control+Option+Shift+E on macOS), or click anywhere outside of the browser window holding the tab you have given control over.

Grant control while sharing a full screen

Please watch this video for a walkthrough of how to accomplish this.

If you prefer written instructions:

  1. While sharing a full screen with a single viewer, hover over the preview window and click the “Grant control” button.

  2. Your browser may show a prompt asking to open the CrankWheel helper (for example “Open CrankWheelHelperProgram?” on Windows, or “Open CrankWheelHelper?” on macOS). We recommend putting a checkmark next to “Always allow” and then clicking Open or OK, to avoid seeing this prompt every time. Or if you prefer, just click Open or OK to allow launching the helper application.

  3. You will see a small dialog box, prompting you “Do you want to enable remote control in your current screen sharing session?”. Click the “Yes” button to allow. You will only see this prompt for the first time that you grant remote control during any given screen sharing session. If you end remote control and then later grant it again during the same session, you will not be prompted.

  4. You may see a prompt, as shown in the video, saying “Please click to launch select area window”. At this prompt, click the orange “Show window” button. This prompt will only be shown in some cases the first time you grant control during a session.

  5. You will be shown a browser window with a snapshot of your screen, and a highlighted area that you can move or resize. You can also click the buttons “Set to full screen” or “Set to partial” to affect the size and position of this area. Once you are happy with the area you have selected to grant mouse control over, click the button “Grant control of selected area” to continue.

  6. You will see a brief couple of flashes of colored windows. Your viewer will then have remote control, as shown by the red/orange blinking border around your screen.

  7. To end remote control, click the “End Remote Control” button in the CrankWheel pop-up window, or hit the keyboard shortcut indicated in the CrankWheel pop-up window (usually Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E on Windows, or Control+Option+Shift+E on macOS).

Ask User to Verify

Ask User to Verify allows presenters to request that a customer enter a specific piece of information during a Remote Control session.

This can be useful for lightweight confirmations, approvals or verification workflows where an organisation wants an auditable customer action without implementing a full electronic signature solution.

The organisation provides the form and stores the submitted information, while CrankWheel records the Remote Control audit trail.

For more information and examples, see our Remote Control blog.

Other useful guides on how to use CrankWheel

This page has attempted to provide a concise guide on how to install and use the Remote Control feature of CrankWheel.

For further help on how to use CrankWheel, please see our getting started guide or you may wish to view our playlist of walkthrough videos that illustrate how to use various features of CrankWheel.

If you need any other assistance, please do not hesitate to chat with us using the chat widget at the bottom-right of this page, or email our support team at support@crankwheel.com.