Screen Snapshot Settings

Configure Computers

Change Screen Snapshot recording in the Snapshots panel of the Deployment Utility or Client Settings. Screen Snapshot settings allow you to enable/disable snapshots, change the snapshot resolution, frequency, timeout limits, and event triggers. Read Snapshot Recording for ideas on setting a snapshot strategy.

Note: Before changes to Screen Snapshots take effect on the Client, the user must log off and log on again.

All activity (Web sites visited, Chat/IM, Programs) will be recorded according to settings, regardless of whether or not the activity shows up in a screen snapshot.

Capture Screen Snapshots
Check to capture screen snapshots at regular intervals. Clear the checkbox to disable screen snapshots. If you "turn off" Capture Screen Snapshots on this settings panel, you can still direct the Client to take snapshots in response to Keyword Alerts, and you can still configure a Snapshot Hotkey to force a snapshot at the local Client computer.

Capture Secondary Monitors
Some users may have more than one monitor attached to the Client computer. Check this option to capture snapshots from all monitors. Monitors will be shown in the correct orientation (left/right/up/down). This setting has no effect on a computer with only one monitor. Clear the checkbox to capture snapshots only on the primary monitor.

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

Note: The snapshot resolution is limited by the video card bit depth on the viewer's (Dashboard user's) computer.

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.

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.
Every 30 seconds (default) provides a compromise between detail and storage requirements.
Every 0 seconds turns off timed snapshots (you can still set event triggers).
Fewer snapshots may compromise the view of a Client's activity.
More snapshots provide greater detail, but use disk space and slow the Client.

Keyword Alert Settings provide an option to increase snapshot frequency if a keyword is detected.

Snapshot Settings Affect Performance
The Snapshot maximum frequency is one per second, but is not recommended. 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.

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.

Reducing the Inactivity Timeout means suspending snapshots more often and saving disk space.

Setting the Inactivity Timeout to 0 (zero) minutes, removes the timeout period. Snapshot frequency will continue as set without regard to user activity.