Viewer Introduction

Introduction to Viewer

The Spector Viewer (Viewer) is a software module that is able to open data files containing events recorded by Spector Client (Client). The Viewer loads the recorded events and provides a user interface to review, summarize, print, report, and manage those events.

When the Viewer is executed, it is given the name of the Windows folder where the Client data files reside. The Viewer will search this folder for all data files containing Client events and will load all events into the Viewer.

The Viewer can be launched by several methods in order to view recorded events:

The Viewer can be launched from the Monitor Computers view of the Control Center by selecting the computer name of the events to be reviewed and double clicking on the entry. The Viewer will execute and open the data files for that computer by reading them from the Data Vault or directly from the computer, depending upon whether the Data Vault has been enabled for storage

Note: This is the recommended method for reviewing recorded events

The Viewer can be launched standalone, without using the Control Center, by running the Admin.exe program

The Admin.exe program can be run from the Client installation folder or it can be installed as a standalone application on another computer
To install Admin.exe as a standalone application on another computer, run the Spsetup.exe program found in the Client installation folder on the other computer
After running Spsetup.exe, select an Advanced install and then select a Viewer Only install. The installation will complete and the Admin.exe program will be installed
When the Admin.exe program is launched standalone, you must manually provide the data file folder paths to the Viewer for reading in recorded events from the monitored computers. The Viewer Favorites menu command can be used to automate the loading of the folder paths for multiple computers

Note: This method would only be used if the Viewer needed to be run without the installation of the Control Center.

The Viewer can be launched from the Client on a monitored computer. This can only be done if the Viewer is configured to install itself at the time the install file is built using the Spector CNE Deployment Utility. The Viewer can then be launched by pressing the configured “hot keys” at the keyboard of the computer and then entering the password. The Viewer will load the data files from the Data File folder on the computer.

Note: If the computer is configured to store recorded events on the Data Vault, only the most recent events in the Data File folder of the Client can be reviewed with the Viewer. This method for launching the Viewer should only be used in a troubleshooting situation when it is necessary to see what is being recorded and what is configured locally on the computer.

In addition to reviewing recorded events stored in the Data Vault, the Viewer can be used to view restored events from the archives and that do not reside in the Data Vault. Use the File>Open command to specify the archived folder containing the read-only Client data files The data files will open and all recorded events will be loaded and arranged chronologically according to event type.

Note: The Viewer loads ALL recorded events from ALL data files in the Windows folder specified to the Viewer. A very large number of recorded events (i.e., tens of thousands) could take a significant amount of time to load depending on access time to the hard drive and the speed/memory of the computer on which the Viewer is installed. In general, loading less than 10 days of activity from the typical computer should load in seconds. If the Viewer is loading a longer timeframe of recorded events, it may take considerably longer. You may want to consider reducing the number of data files to load. This can be done by removing data files with timestamps of a particular date range.