Set up your first Access device

Access is unattended remote access to the computers you manage. You install the Blink agent on a computer once. From then on it shows in the console under Access, and you can connect whenever it is online, whether or not anyone is there.

The Access agent runs on Windows. It installs as a service that starts automatically with Windows.

Before you start:

• You can sign in to the console with a role that lets you create enrollment keys and connect to devices. The owner and Admin roles can.
• On your own server, the license is active and the Agent builds card lists agents. See Activate your license.
• Your plan includes Unattended Access and has a free Access device: each enrolled computer takes one. See Access devices.
• You can run programs as administrator on the Windows computer.

1. Create an enrollment key

An enrollment key lets the agent register a computer into one organization.

1. Select the organization in the top bar.
2. In the sidebar, go to Enrollment.
3. Click New key.
4. Fill in the key’s details:
   • Label: a name to recognize it by, for example Acme HQ rollout, Oct.
   • Seed group: optional. Computers enrolled with this key join this group.
   • Max uses: how many computers can enroll with it. 0 means unlimited.
   • Expires in days: from 1 to 365. The default is 90.
5. Click Create key.

The New key · shown once card appears.

Copy it now

The key is shown only once. Blink keeps only a hash of it, so it cannot show it again. Anyone who has the key, or an installer built with it, can enroll a computer into your organization until it expires or is used up. Prefer one key per rollout, with a small Max uses and a short expiry.

2. Get the agent onto the computer

The card offers two ways. Use whichever suits you.

The installer (simplest)

1. Click Download installer. Blink builds a signed agent with this key built in.
2. Copy the installer to the Windows computer.
3. On that computer, right-click the installer and choose Run as administrator.

It installs and enrolls with no further questions.

The agent and a command

1. Click Agent to download the agent, blink-agent.exe, and copy it to the Windows computer.

2. Click Copy next to the command. It looks like this, with your key in it:

   blink-agent.exe --install --enroll <key>

3. On that computer, open a Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator, go to the folder with blink-agent.exe, and run the command.

This way suits scripted rollouts, because the same agent file works with any key.

Note

If the card says No agent release yet, so there is nothing to download, the instance has no agents to hand out. On your own server, go to Instance › License and click Check now under Agent builds.

3. Find the computer in the console

1. In the sidebar, go to Access.
2. The computer appears in the list, by name, with online now under it.

4. Connect

1. Click View on the computer’s row. The viewer opens in a new tab.
2. If the console asks you to confirm it’s you, switch back to the console tab and confirm with your passkey or a code from your authenticator.

You now see the computer’s screen and control it. Unlike Support sessions, Access sessions do not ask you to confirm the computer first.

5. End the session

In the viewer, click End, then End session. Every technician viewing the computer is disconnected and, if the session is recorded, the recording is finalized.

The agent stays installed and the computer stays in Access, ready for next time. Like Support sessions, Access sessions are listed under Sessions. The recording and the session log are kept when your plan includes Session recording and Session timeline (Blink Pro): see Blink Core and Blink Pro.

Install Access during a Support session

Already helping someone in a Support session on Windows? Click Install Access in the viewer to install the agent on their computer and enroll it into your organization, without a separate key. Confirm the computer first. The support tool also has to run as administrator: if it does not yet, the viewer offers Run as admin, and the customer answers a one-time Windows prompt with Yes.

See Install for rolling the agent out to many computers, and Use Blink for everything you can do with an Access device.