I need the Remote Assistance, to occasionally help out my daughter who is
studying far away from our place.
We both have MSN Messenger 7.5. She has got WinXP Home, I've got WinXP Pro.
I understand that the "Remote Desktop Connection" feature is unavailable on
her machine (Home Edition).
I am not sure whether this affects both PCAnyWhere and Messenger, but
nothing that I try seems to work.
To concentrate on MSN Messenger, here are some amazing sequences of
actions/reactions from her system.
To start she does: Actions -> Request Remote Assistance.
The machine gives back: "Your invitation was not sent because you need the
latest version of Windows Messenger [...] Please go to the Windows Messenger
update site to unstall the software".
So, we think she should be needing both Messenger MSN and Messenger, huh..?
Let's try.

Try No 1:
She clicks on this link, yup there it is, she clicks the big big button
"Download now!"
There's a second window with the same offering and the same big big button.
Underneath some text refers to this being part of SP2.
She clicks that second button, still no download but instead comes another
window with talk about SP2 alone. Messenger is away completely now. She's
already using WinXP Home SP2 so this is a dead end, or what...? Need to
re-install SP2? Why...? The PC came brand new pre-installed with the SP2
version on it. Mystery...

Try No 2:
Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components.
Windows Messenger stands marked as already installed. We find it nowhere.
So, we say uninstall, then we say reinstall. Then we restart. We still find
it nowhere. No Remote Assistance, as before.
Another dead end.

I really would have liked to get that remote help going but I think it
exists only on paper. If anyone knows of a water-tight step-by-step
no-nonsens procedure to set things up including analysis-clear
troubleshooting, I'd be very glad and grateful because I don't like running
around in circles and I've got work to do. Bloody software!