Sorry, I think that having used the tool myself - and used it as a customer when dealing with my clients' problems - I was just very accustomed to how these tools worked. Like Dan said, you have to get the customer to enter a code, download the install file, run it, and accept the UAC message to connect. Once the session is active, I'm able to restart the computer and maintain the connection, but if anything happens to disconnect me, it's over and I can't reconnect. Neither can anyone else because there's no active session and the process has stopped running. I can't speak to the tool MS used with him, but GoToAssist uses an encrypted connection.

I'm also able, for my clients who request it, to install an "unattended access" application. This has to be accepted on their end, it's still encrypted, and I still need to know the computer login when I connect, but I can connect any time and work on their computer. Some find this uncomfortable, so it doesn't get installed. Most of the people who want this are ones who I help often and don't want to go through the process every time, or who actually want me to connect to their computers when they're not there. Most of these are small businesses, but home users too. Fortunately, I've gained a great deal of trust with my customers.