Spector CNE
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Administrator's Guide |
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Configure Computers
Configure Snapshot recordings in the Snapshots panel of the Deployment Utility wizard or in the right pane of the Client Settings window. The settings are the same in each case.
Spector 360 can take hundreds of snapshots every hour on each networked PC, very much like a surveillance camera. A snapshot is a graphic representation of exactly what the user is seeing on the computer's display. Snapshots are taken at the frequency you choose and can be viewed from the Dashboard or from a Client Viewer. For each Snapshot event, the Client records:
Date and time the snapshot was taken
Name of the program that had Windows focus
Windows user logged in when the snapshot was taken
Capture Screen Snapshots - Check to enable Screen Snapshots. Clear the checkbox to disable Screen Snapshots.
Capture Secondary Monitors - Check to capture snapshots of all monitors attached to the Client computer. The snapshots show the computer's monitors in correct orientation (left to right, above, below, etc.). If this option is disabled, the Client will capture snapshots only of the primary display. (All other activities will be recorded regardless of which display they appear on.)
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If Screen Snapshots are disabled in the Client Settings, you can still specify that snapshots be taken in response to Keyword Alerts and/or configure a Snapshot Hotkey that forces a snapshot of the display when you enter the key sequence at the Client computer. These snapshots will be enabled regardless of the setting here. |
Snapshot
Capture Format - Set the color depth/size of graphic for screen
captures. Setting the snapshots to gray scale or lower color depth will
save space on the Client and in the Data Vault. Select from:
1 Bit Monochrome: monochrome graphic (black-and-white); smallest file
4 Bit GrayScale: gray scale graphic (recommended)
4 Bit Color: graphic is indexed and reduced to 16 colors
8 Bit Color: graphic is indexed
and stored in 256 colors
16 Bit Color: hi-color graphic stored in 65536 colors
24 Bit Color: true-color graphic stored in 16 million+ colors
32 Bit Color: true-color with alpha channel; largest file (not recommended)
Snapshot in 4-Bit Grayscale
If a screen displays at 16-bit color, you can take a perfectly adequate 4-bit grayscale Snapshot that uses 25% less space than a 16-bit color Snapshot. A 1-bit monochrome snapshot takes only 12% of the space, but may not be adequate for viewing from the Dashboard. Grayscale is the recommended setting. If you increase the color depth captured, you may have to increase the Client's maximum data storage to handle all Screen Snapshots.
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Snapshots have built-in efficiency. When the Client takes a Snapshot, it stores only the parts of the display that have changed since the previous Snapshot. Compression is always applied to the graphic representation to keep the file size as small as possible. |
Take Snapshot Every n Seconds - Set the frequency for taking Snapshots. The default is one Snapshot every 30 seconds, which provides a compromise between detail and storage requirements.
Fewer Snapshots may compromise the Dashboard view of a Client's activity; more Snapshots provide greater detail but use up disk space and slow down the Client. A Snapshot every 15 seconds may require 2 times as much storage as one every 30 seconds. A Snapshot every 5 seconds may require 6 times the storage space and an increase in the Maximum Data Size configuration. Keep in mind that the Keyword Alert setting provides an option to increase snapshot frequency if a keyword is detected.
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Performance. The Snapshot maximum frequency is one per second, but this is not recommended by SpectorSoft. Computers with slower CPUs and hard drives may cause an unacceptable slowing down (reduced performance) of the Client computer. |
Inactivity Timeout n Minutes - Set the number of minutes of user inactivity before Snapshots are suspended. The default Inactivity Timeout is 3 minutes. When the user does not move the mouse, click the mouse, or type a keystroke for 3 minutes, Snapshots are stopped until activity begins again. As soon as activity begins, a Snapshot is taken and the frequency setting goes into effect again.
Increasing the Inactivity Timeout means more Snapshots of screens that are not changing. For example, if you set the Inactivity Timeout to 5 minutes, you might get Snapshots every 30 seconds for up to 5 minutes of unchanging screens.
Reducing the Inactivity Timeout means stopping Snapshots more often and saving disk space. For example, if you set the Inactivity Timeout to 1 minute, you'll get a Snapshot every 30 seconds while the user is typing or clicking, but as soon as user stops activity for more than a minute, the Snapshots are suspended.
Setting the Inactivity Timeout to 0 (zero) minutes, removes the timeout
period. Snapshot frequency continues as set without regard to user activity.
Screen Snapshots Troubleshooting
