SCREEN ANYTIME v2.0
ADMINISTRATOR MANUAL
Record user session of anyone at anytime.
©Stepok Image Lab. 2007-2008 www.screen-record.com
Document version v2.00, Mar. 30 2008
SCREEN ANYTIME v2.0 |
ADMINISTRATOR MANUAL |
Record user session of anyone at anytime.
©Stepok Image Lab. 2007-2008 www.screen-record.com |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REPLAY, ADD DESCRIPTION, DELETE AND EXPORT
CLOSE CURRENT RECORDING AND REPLAY
TRIAL VERSION AND FULL VERSION
SERVER EDITION AND WORKSTATION EDITION
Screen Anytime is a Windows software which records onscreen activities during user session for future replay. It starts when a user login the server, and ends until he logout. During the session, all screen changes and mouse movements will be recorded in a highly compressed file. With Screen Anytime, it is easy for Administrator to know exactly what is done to the server, by whom and when. Based on SSCV2, a special compression algorithm designed for screen, a whole month’s video can be compressed in just one DVD disc (typically).
After installation, Screen Anytime will put the shortcut of recorder to the start group of Windows by write registry value in ‘HKLM\...\Windows\...\Run’. Once a user session starts, no matter login from local or remote, the recorder will run until the end. During this period, the recorder will continually write the data to the file in specified folder, which Administrators can run Screen Anytime to manage, review and replay.
√Better security and easier server management.
Compared with the text events log of system, a video of all onscreen activities is easier to be understood. Obviously, it will greatly help us to know what exactly happens on the server. It is also useful to catch some unrepeatable system events and monitor user’s behavior.
√Support remote desktop and terminal service
Screen Anytime can record user session not only login locally but also through remote desktop and terminal services. Since remote desktop is the most common way for users to access server remotely, this feature is very important. More than that, any remote control software that need an interactive desktop, such as PcAnywhere, can be recorded by Screen Anytime too.
√Recording per user and view by timeline
The records are grouped by users and sorted by the login time. For one day’s data, a timeline interface is provided to show the outline of user sessions clearly. See below,
Figure 1: Timeline
√Search a moment
Screen Anytime provide a magic way to find any special moment by simply searching text in window’s title the user was operating on. An example task, find out all website a user have visited, assume IE is the only explore.Since the title should be ‘Some website – Microsoft Internet Explorer’, you can use ‘internet explorer’ as the term for searching. After searching, double click a item, you can play the file and jump to the moment automatically.
√The smallest file size
Record a whole-day screen? Will it cost a mass of disk space? Don’t worry about that. A session with 1024x768, high color, 8hrs time per day will only need about 100-300MB to record all actions(200-600K per minutes), on average. You can backup a whole-month data into just 1-2 DVD discs.
The reason why Screen Anytime can compress data with such highly ratio is ‘Stepok Screen Codec v2’ (SSCV2 as follows), a core technology.
SSCV2, the second generation screen codec of us, is a special designed codec for recording and compressing screen. Compared with other codec, it can archive better quality while much higher compression ratio in both ‘office style’ and ‘webpage style’ desktop operation. In our testing, in same condition, the compression ratio is even higher than ‘Remote Desktop Protocol’ (RDP).
√Variable configurations
Screen Anytime can be set to record certain users or a specified time range. You can also set the maximal drive space using and how long the records can exist on drive before deleted.
At the first time running Screen Anytime, you need to setup the software with ‘File and Directory’, ’Record’, ’Range’ and ‘Privacy’ pages.
Figure 2: File and directory setup page
Output folder
In this folder, the file name follows this rule:
Output Folder\Year-Month\UserName.Date-Hour-Minute-Second.slv (.tmp)
This folder structure makes it easy to backup records month by month. The under recording file is end with a ‘.tmp’ extension, which will be closed and rename to a normal ‘.slv’ extension when recorder closes it. The recorder will access the folder and write the files by user ‘SCR_ANYTIME_USER’. So if the file system is NTFS, please make sure that the folder and its subfolder can be read and wrote by it.
Size Limits
To avoid your disk out of space, you can limit the maximal disk use and how long the records will be kept. When it exceeds, program will delete the old files. So, remember to backup data if need.
Figure 3: Record setup page
Frame rate
Define how many frames per second the recorder should capture. Although a higher frame rate can capture more screen changes, it brings bigger file and occupies more CPU time. Most of the time, one frame per second is fast enough to know what happened.
A testing result for your reference:
CPU load: %2
1 frame per second
800x600, high color, login with remote desktop
2.8G Pentium D.
Color Depth
In default, Screen Anytime will try to use 16bit high color mode to record. You can choose a lower one to save more disk space, depending on your need. Click ‘Demo’ button to see the difference of quality.
Figure 4: Range setup page [Server Edition Only]
Users
Screen Anytime can be set to record certain users and specified time range. After installation, a local user group will be created with the name ‘ScrAnytime_List’. Any users in this list can be set as ‘record’ or ‘not record’. In default, Screen Anytime will record all users. You can use user account management tool of Windows to set the group.
Time
By check the ‘except’ option and input the time in 24hrs format, you can set Screen Anytime to record a specified time range.
Figure 5: Privacy setup page
As an application runs behind, the user may not notice that his/her behavior has been monitored and recorded. To protect the privacy of the user, Administrator can set Screen Anytime to give a warning, show a tray icon, or allow the user to stop and close the recorder.
Sometimes on the contrary to above, Administrators do not wish the users to know there is a recording process behind, preventing them from terminating the process by force before they do some thing harmful to the server. If so, uncheck the option.
After setup, restating system is recommended.
The file of records is saved with the name.
Output Folder\Year-Month\UserName.Date-Hour-Minute-Second.slv (.tmp)
The under recording file and unclosed file are ended with ‘.tmp’ extension. Screen Anytime will scan the folder for all files when it starts, indexes them and tries to repair old unclosed file.
VERY IMPORTANT: Administrator can simply remove the old records by deleting the files. To prevent other users deleting or modifying the records, Administrator can remove their ‘read’ and ‘write’ right on the output folder and its sub folder (need NTFS). At the same time, make sure Screen Anytime user ‘SCR_ANYTIME_USER’ has full access on this folder. The recorder program will write data to this folder with user ‘SCR_ANYTIME_USER’.
Start Screen Anytime and you will see an interface like this,
Figure 6: Interface of Screen Anytime
The month with records will be listed on top of the window. Select a month then you will see the calendar of it. In this calendar, date with records will be shown in black, the others in gray.
Select a day and the records will be shown on right view with timeline or list. In time line, each file will be presented as a segment which starts from the corresponded x position on timeline. The files of different users are expanded on y axis.
In list view, as follows,
Figure 7: List view
You can see details about these files. There are some items that need to be explained.
End Reason: there are 6 kinds of reasons that a recorder will close a file,
You should pay more attention to reason 6. If the user closes the recorder by force, he/she may not want Administrator to know what he/she is doing. Screen Anytime has some ways to prevent process being terminated but it is still possible to kill the process of recorder in lower system driver level. If this case does happen, you can review the movie to make sure and look up other system logs for more information. Screen Anytime will help you know who and when.
Select a file in list or time line, then you can do something, including:
Replay
Figure 8: The player
In player, you can play, pause or play frame by frame. Click or drag the slider bar to jump to any time.
Fast playing:
Dragging and holding the control-ball to reach 1-8x speedy replay. Release it to reset 1x speed.
Jumping:
Click the task list to jump to next title or click the jump button for a list of all. See below for where ‘jump’ button is.
Buttons:
‘menu’, button on top-left; ‘real-size show’, ’stretch’, ’jump’, ’export’, ’exit’, buttons below ‘Absolute time’, from left to right.
Jump over idle time:
Look at the ‘Density of screen changes’ shows upon the progress bar, drag the slider to next position with black dots.
Add Description
You can add some descriptions into a file for future look up.
Delete
Delete a file from disk.
Export
Export segment to a self-play exe movie or an ‘.avi’ file.
Notice, the size of AVI file for a same segment could be much larger than a self-play exe file. For big image like screen, some video codec may not work, after our testing, Xvid maybe a good choice on many computers.
Screen Anytime, over v1.5, have a feature that supports tags for special moments. Any user can mark a moment by added a tag by pressing hotkey ‘Ctrl-Alt-F12’ in recording.
Figure 9, Add moment tag
In this pop-up dialog, you can give this moment a short description which can be searched and viewed later in Screen Anytime. In the ‘moment time’ section, you can adjust the tag time to/before/after the time dialog pop-up or the time dialog closed.
This tag is listed at the left of Screen Anytime window after a month is selected. Double click the item, you can go to and replay the moment. It can also be searched in ‘searching a moment’ function besides the general keyword searching of title.
Figure 10, Show moment tag on left
To protect the records from deleting, modification and reading by non-administrator users, you can,
With above settings, common users can not read/write files in this folder, so they can not delete, modify or copy them.
The following settings can help saving disk space,
The statistics of total disk usage can be found at the left side of the main interface.
Figure 11, Statistics
[Server Edition Only]
It is easy to back up the records that just burn the files you need into disc. Warning, the files on disc have no protection, and therefore anyone can replay them on any computer installed Screen Anytime.
In Screen Anytime, you can reopen the backup records. Just use menu item ‘File-From another place’ and select a folder. For example, the path of DVD-ROM. Screen Anytime will browse and search in this folder and update view based on the result.
The search function is very useful in filtering out special user actions from the big files.The recorder will catch every change in foreground window, and write down their titles. When user do something, the always have a foreground window. By searching text in titles of these windows, Screen Anytime can bring you back to the moment they open it.
Figure 12, search dialog
Here are some examples, (these could be varied in different system)
To Find, Who and When |
Search Term |
Original Window’s Title |
Changed registry |
‘Registry’ |
‘Registry Editor’ |
Conversation with Tom on MSN |
‘Tom’ |
‘Tom - Conversation |
Visited google |
‘Google’ |
‘Google – Microsoft Internet Explore’ or some other navigators. |
Table 1, Typical samples of search function
In default, the recorder of Screen Anytime will change files every 3 hours. That means you can not see what happened in past 3 hours because the file has not been closed. In that case, if you need to see them, you can call menu ‘Item - End current recording’ to close them manually. In this function, you can set the recorder to stop or resume after the file is closed.
The ‘End reason’ of a manually closed file is ‘User stop recording’.
Recorder says: “Due to user account changes. Current user can not access destination folder.”
Check local user accounts, and make sure ‘SCR_ANYTIME_USER’ exist. Check registry value ‘HLM\Software\Stepok\ScreenAnytime\File\UserIDRef’ in existence. If not, reinstall Screen Anytime under Administrator account.
Recorder Says: “The folder of screen records has not been set. Please run Screen Anytime”
Run Screen Anytime, and run ‘File-Setup’ function to set the folder.
Recorder Says: “Can not write files, and please check the user \'SCR_ANYTIME_USER\' to have right of access ……”
Make sure the folder exist, and check the security property of the folder. Make sure user ‘SCR_ANYTIME_USER’ can read and writes in this folder and its subfolder.
Can not record contents in media player
It is not a bug. The capture function of recorder is based on GDI, which can not capture some movie scene in media player, rendered by overlap way.
Can not terminate ‘ScreenLog.exe’ process in ‘Task manager’
The recording process is protected by Screen Anytime. You can not terminate it unless Administrator allows users to close it by setting option in ‘Screen Anytime-Setup-Privacy’. Administrator can terminate it with function ‘Screen Anytime-Item-Stop current recording’.
Can not start Screen Anytime
Only Administrator can use this program to configurate and replay.
CPU cost too much
Set FPS in ‘ScreenAnytime-Setup-Record’ page to a lower number if your processor is not powerful enough.
Windows Vista UAC warning
Since running Screen Anytime need Administrator privilege, in Windows Vista, it is marked with a UAC shield, which will show warning every time launching. This is normal.
Any other questions, please visit our forum at:
http://www.stepok.net/ScrecForum
The trial version for public evaluation has a trail period of 60 days. To continue using this product after trial days, you need purchase a license key.
Figure 13: Trial version
If you have purchased a license key, we will send you a link of full version. You need to download and install it, then enter the key you have purchased to activate the product.
The following table compares the differences between two editions,
Features |
Server Edition |
Workstation Edition |
System |
Win 2003 Server |
Win XP/Vista |
Licensing |
Per server |
Per PC |
Record specified users |
Yes |
No |
Specify a time range |
Yes |
No |
Hide recorder |
Yes |
No, a tray-icon must show |
Backup and reopen |
Yes |
No |
Price |
Higher, visit our website for more details. |
Lower than server edition. |
Table 2, Comparison between server edition and workstation edition
Website
A stepok sub-site of screen recording related products.
Purchase
Server Edition
http://secure.emetrix.com/order/product.asp?PID=131826058
Workstation Edition
http://secure.emetrix.com/order/product.asp?PID=13182687
Forum http://www.stepok.net/ScrecForum
Support support@stepok.com
Sales sales@stepok.com