Ammyy Admin 3.6 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
Updated August 01, 2017

Note: Ammyy Admin's official website has been reported by various sourced 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.

Ammyy Admin is an entirely portable and free remote desktop program that's used by over 70 million. It can be ran 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.

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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.

Note: This review is of Ammyy Admin version 3.6, released on July 5, 2014. Please let me know if there's a newer version I need to review.

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
  • Supports file transfers
  • Completely portable
  • Voice chat
  • Supports full screen mode
  • Spontaneous support
  • Clipboard sharing

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 may be falsely flagged as malicious

More About Ammyy Admin

  • 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

    Ammyy Admin works a bit like TeamViewer, where an ID number is used 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 Create session section of Ammyy Admin, 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 ran portably, 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.

    My Thoughts on Ammyy Admin

    Ammyy Admin is amazingly simple to use. Because no installation is necessary, and the program file is small, you can get a remote session started pretty quickly. This is a great idea if you're supporting someone who doesn't know a whole lot about installing applications.

    I particularly like the ability Ammyy Admin has to transfer files without interrupting the host. Files can be removed, added, copied, or moved without prompting the host.

    It may not be easily seen at first, but if you choose the dropdown menu before connecting a host computer, you can choose to launch just voice chat or the file manager without viewing the remote screen. This means you can have VOIP calls and exchange files very easily without even seeing the remote screen, similar to Remote Utilities.

    Not all computers have a microphone built into them, so the fact that Ammyy Admin only supports voice chat and not text chat is certainly a downside.

    All things considered, I would rate Ammyy Admin pretty high and recommend it be used for remote access to your own computer. However, if you wish to provide support to someone else, using a remote access tool that can send and receive text chat is probably a better idea.

    Download Ammyy Admin
    [Ammyy.com | Download Tips]