Ammyy Admin 3.7 Review

A Full Review of Ammyy Admin, a Free Remote Access/Desktop Program

Screenshot of Ammyy Admin v3.5 in Windows 7
Ammyy Admin v3.5. © Ammyy
by Tim Fisher
Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire.
Updated January 11, 2019

Ammyy Admin is an entirely portable and free remote desktop program that's used by tens of millions of people. It can be run from a portable USB based drive or installed as a service for unattended access.

This program has all the features you'd expect in a good remote access tool, like file transfers, chat, and spontaneous support.

Below is my review of Ammyy Admin. See some of the advantages of the software, a tutorial on how it works, and my thoughts on the program.

[Ammyy.com | Download Tips]

This review is of Ammyy Admin version 3.7, released on August 18, 2018. Please let me know if there's a newer version I need to review

Important

Ammyy Admin's official website has been reported by various sources to contain malware. You can try searching for a valid download link elsewhere, but we don't recommend using their official website at ammyy.com. If you already have, consider scanning your computer for viruses.

Because of this, you can't download Ammyy Admin if you're using the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser. However, even if you use a different browser, the program itself (v3.7) has been identified by numerous virus scanning engines as containing threats.

With that being said, it's been reported by some that the program itself is safe. The issue is that at some point in the past, the official Ammyy Admin website was abused by hackers where they inserted malware into the program, meaning that anyone who downloaded the software during that time actually downloaded a malicious version.

It's for this reason that Chrome and Firefox have blocked access to downloading files from there. If you want to download Ammy Admin, you have to use a different browser like Opera, Edge, or Internet Explorer.

Ammyy Admin Pros & Cons

Though Ammyy Admin may seem too simple because it's a portable program, it does have some nice advantages:

Pros:

  • No setup required (completely portable)
  • Supports file transfers
  • Voice chat
  • Supports full-screen mode
  • Spontaneous support
  • Clipboard sharing
  • Small download size

Cons:

  • No text chat
  • Not free for commercial use
  • Doesn't support Wake-on-LAN (WOL)
  • Can not connect remotely through a web browser
  • Website is flagged as malicious

More About Ammyy Admin

  • Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP users can all install Ammyy Admin
  • Ammyy Admin can also run on Windows Server 2008, 2003, and 2000
  • Unique ID numbers are used for connections so no router changes need to be made
  • Local keyboard shortcuts can be sent over Ammyy Admin to run on the remote PC
  • Ammyy Admin supports unattended access by optionally being installed as a service to always be ready for remote connections
  • The host can start a connection in read-only mode so that they can just see the screen of the host but not actually make any changes
  • A list of contacts can be stored in Ammyy Admin so that you don't have to remember IP addresses or IDs
  • In the program's settings are options to enable/disable the desktop background during a remote session as well as toggle visual effects on and off, which can both be used to improve the overall speed of the connection
  • A custom path can be set so that users remoted into the computer can only access files from a folder of your choosing. Or, if left blank, all the files on the computer are accessible
  • Ammyy Admin lets you control access permissions on a per-contact level. This means you can prevent select users from doing things like taking control of the screen or copying clipboard content, or even remoting in at all, even to simply view the screen. You can also deny a user from transferring files and voice chatting

How Ammyy Admin Works

An ID number is used in Ammyy Admin to make a connection with another computer. Both the host and client PC receive an ID when they first launch the program.

From the hosts perspective, there are two basic things you could do. The first is to set up unattended access. This works by running Ammyy Admin as a system service so you can always connect to it. This is done through the menu item Ammyy > Service > Install. Or you could simply launch the program and share the ID with the client.

The client just needs to enter the host's ID into the Operator. Create session section of Ammyy Admin (the right side of the program), in the Client ID/IP text field. Whether the client is connecting to a host that's installed as a service or one that's just running in portable mode, the connection method is the same.

Once the client makes the connection, it can transfer files to and from the host, start a voice chat, etc.

[Ammyy.com | Download Tips]