Solarwinds Take Control
Remote access designed for power and speed, all at an affordable price

Take Control:

SolarWinds Take Control is intended to provide robust remote access for IT businesses without straining their budgets. It was built to help you connect in seconds and uses multiple deep diagnostic tools to resolve issues quickly and professionally.

Your remote access solution is one of your most essential IT support tools. Not only does it need to simply work, it needs to be fast and provide key diagnostic tools and device information where and when you need it. SolarWinds Take Control was designed for this and more, at a price most businesses can afford.

For both attended and unattended support needs, Take Control was built with security in mind, using sophisticated encryption like Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman and AES 256. To further help strengthen data security, Take Control was engineered to include multilevel authentication, two-factor authentication, and session-specific PIN generation as standard features.

Take Control was designed to excel in the speed and power departments by offering 24-bit true color multimonitor visibility, highlevel diagnostic and Windows tools, and drag/drop or cut/paste bulk file transfers. You can choose to record sessions if you need, and you can also search session notes to trace device issue histories.

Take Control was designed to include:

• Support for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android platforms
• Encryption technologies intended to help keep data, PINs, and customers safe
• Custom branding and the ability to request support via website
• Connection to devices in typically under eight seconds
• Support for 4K+ resolution, multimonitor, and 24-bit true color
• System information and robust tools accessible from a central console
• Cut/paste or drag/drop file transfers
• Security that could potentially help with HIPAA, GDPR, and other privacy regulations

Robust Administrative Tools

The Take Control admin area is your main dashboard and hub where you can set up technicians, devices, and users. You can also configure your branding, start unattended or attended sessions, review reports, and more. It was designed to help you keep all aspects of your remote support business in one organized place.

Built with your Future in Mind

Over time, you may find you need more sophisticated request-queue handling and configuration. At that point, you can upgrade to Take Control Plus, our most robust remote support solution. Take Control Plus was engineered to help you better manage request queues, leverage VoIP and presession chat capabilities, offer customer surveys, and gain access to even more powerful diagnostic tools.

And like Take Control, Take Control Plus was designed to be affordable for most businesses.

Take Control Plus:

Fast and powerful remote support. SolarWinds Take Control Plus: Designed to help you take control of your business, technician eff icacy, and customer experience. The right remote support solution doesn’t just connect techs to machines, it solves business problems.

The SolarWinds Take Control Plus remote support solution provides a uniquely powerful tool for IT providers to access nearly any platform or device to solve issues quickly. It delivers clear visibility and communication capabilities to solve technical problems fast and delight end users. Packed with all the features of more premium, expensive solutions, SolarWinds Take Control Plus off ers powerful tools, reporting, and session monitoring at a very affordable price. Whether responding to a user support request or performing unattended maintenance, with SolarWinds Take Control Plus, technicians can complete any remote support function with a minimum of clicks and time.

For Your Technicians

Techs need sharp, powerful tools to diagnose issues quickly and ensure customers get the service they expect. SolarWinds Take Control Plus offers some of the most advanced troubleshooting, communication and security features to get the job done fast and right.

For Your Business

SolarWinds Take Control Plus not only provides clear dashboards and data to help you optimize business eff iciency, but also tremendous flexibility to brand and configure elements to fit your business needs. SolarWinds Take Control Plus also considers iron-clad security to be fundamental, so you and your customers can rest assured that data is designed to stay safe at every point in the support process.

For Your Customers

A simple and pleasant end-user experience is always the IT support professional’s goal. Fast, easy connection and fluid communication are critical to making sure end users and technicians resolve issues swiftly, the fi rst time.

• One-click support requests from branded website button or on-screen tray icon
• Quick connect from startcontrol.com and 6-digit PIN
• Expected wait time information
• Position in support queue information
• Receipt of session links through email
• Live chat or VoIP calling
• Pre-session chat
• Laser pointer
• Calling cards
• Automatic report receipt
• Post-session surveys

Compare:

Overview	Take Control	Take Control Plus
Attended support (downloaded applets)
Unattended support (installed agents)
Connection typically established in under 8 seconds
Support from Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, or Linux
Support for Windows and Mac
Installed endpoint agents	50	500
Mobile application (iOS and Android)
Support for Android and iOS devices
Multiple languages
24/7 chat support
24/7 chat and phone support
Customer Experience	Take Control	Take Control Plus
Simple PIN connect to unregistered devices
“Get Support” request button for your website
Keyboard tray icon support request button
Sending of session links via email or chat
Safe in-session chat
Guide for customers at startcontrol.com
In-session video calling
Post-session surveys
Pre-session chat
Show customer position in request queue in applet
Show customer expected wait time in queue
VoIP calling
Branding and Configurations	Take Control	Take Control Plus
Branding of agent and applet components
Customized emails and alerts
Organize by department
“Get Support” request button for your website
Mass deployment of agents to machines
Default configurations for new agents
Customize your Terms of Service
Customization of startcontrol.com URL
Customized reports
Automatic report sending
IP access control
Email notifications
Session Management	Take Control	Take Control Plus
One-click access from registered devices
Multisession handling
Session recording
Searchable session notes
Missed session notifications
Hide wallpaper
Full screen/fit screen
Block remote keyboard and mouse
Laser pointer
Lock PC
Technician screen sharing (attended sessions)
Switch presenter role
Port forwarding
RDP forwarding
Pause session
Blank screen
Change terminal services session
Security	Take Control	Take Control Plus
GDPR ready
AES encryption
FIPS 140-2-compliant components
Multilayer authentication with mandatory 2FA for admins
Clipboard deletion at session end
Lock PC
Prevent auto-sleep, auto-lock and inactivity disconnects
Idle sessions timeout control
Management and Reporting	Take Control	Take Control Plus
Video session recording to local machine
Session history and search (up to six months)
Flexible technician creation and permissions
Video session recording to cloud
Session history and search (unlimited)
Post-session surveys for both customers and technicians
Calling cards
Deferred support requests
Real-time session dashboard
Survey summary reports
Technician performance reports
PIN expiration options
Session history export to .xls
In-Session Tools and Features	Take Control	Take Control Plus
Remote printing to Mac, Windows, and most printers
4K+ remote monitor support
24-bit true color support
Dynamic multimonitor support
Automatic color and quality bandwidth adjustment
Fast copy/paste or drag-and-drop file transfer
Automatic keyboard mapping translation
Force reboot and reconnect (in safe mode, if necessary)
System CMD shell with “native” performance and shortcuts
Send CTR-ALT-DEL
Windows commands
Prevent auto-sleep, auto-lock and inactivity disconnects
Basic system info (OS, CPU, RAM, network, etc.)
Terminal session access with user access selection
Run local batch script
Registry editing
Device details (apps, drivers, BIOS, video controller, etc.)
AV active status
Firewall status
Extensive system info (processes, network, apps, services, drivers and much more)
Windows event logs and updates
Take Control proxy
Mobile config. files upload
Deferred support API
History API

SolarWinds Take Control is a fast, powerful, and safe remote support solution that gives you the ability to offer clients IT support from wherever you are.

Take Control offers both unattended (behind the scenes) and attended (with user present) support. Unattended support can be initiated with a single click to a registered device, and access to unlock that machine using our Secrets Vault feature.

Attended remote support includes great communication capabilities, like live chat and VoIP, as well as fine-tuned visibility into users’ monitors and machines.  

For either type of access, our Tech Console and Remote Viewer put the tools techs need to diagnose and resolve issues right at their fingertips – from detailed system information to editable registries, Take Control gives techs a clear view into systems to offer great support. 

New users can request support through a “Get Support” button on your website, or by contacting your team and connecting through a 9-digit PIN. Once user devices are registered in Take Control, they can request support via a system tray icon, or chat. Incoming requests can be automatically routed to specific technicians, and technicians can easily pass requests to other technicians if an issue needs to be escalated.

Managing support requests is easy with Take Control. Once a support request has been made, Take Control provides you with the ability to open a lightweight live-chat window or VoIP call to engage with clients, should questions come up. While they are waiting for support, they can see their place in the support queue and an estimate of wait time. Technicians can also easily transfer files to the user, share their monitor, or even use a laser pointer to highlight things on the user’s screen.

All user-facing elements of Take Control can be branded by the MSP. Terms of Service, automated emails, and reports can be customized and set to send per the MSP’s schedule. Take Control can be organized by department or technician with multi-layer authentication set to help ensure user security.

Yes, with Take Control Plus, you can offer this capability for up to 10 users.

No. All Take Control or Take Control Plus licenses are used by all users/technicians; a license is not attached to a particular user. What this means is that all the settings and configurations are shared by all techs (except permissions, which can be set individually). Since Take Control does not include all the features of Take Control Plus and supports fewer agent-installed endpoint machines, all licenses must be of the same type.

SolarWinds offers 24/7 chat support and a Customer Success Center that features a comprehensive Take Control Help Center. Take Control Plus owners also can submit cases to our Support team and speak with them live. We also offer many free courses to help you grow your business with MSP Institute.

Take Control documentation can be found with our release documentation.

Yes, and you can easily do that from within the product. Just go to your Account in the Admin Area and select “Licensing Information”. From there, you can easily add additional licenses, or upgrade from Take Control to Take Control Plus.

Yes, you can record sessions. For Take Control, they can only be stored locally where are with Take Control Plus there is unlimited storage for up to two years.

You can see full pricing on our webpage – just select month-to-month or annual pricing, and the currency you need.

Yes! When you buy Take Control or Take Control Plus from your free trial, you’ll be guided through a typical electronic commerce flow, where you can add a credit card that will be automatically charged.

Documentation:

Download the Solarwinds Take Control Datasheet (.PDF)

Download the Solarwinds Take Control Plus Datasheet (.PDF)