Introduction to the Session Player
The Session Player is a pop-up player/window which allows you to play back the screen recordings/audio recordings of a user's computer and if, it's online, interact with it.
You can also do the following on the Session Player:
Remote control a user's computer (RDP)
Freeze the user inputs (lock out keyboard/mouse input)
Activate the Windows Task Manager (send the CTRL+ALT+DEL command)
Track Notifications (Behavior Alerts)
Track all user Activities
Quickly search for any activity and notification, jump to the exact time of an activity or incident
Add Tags and notes for auditing purposes
Take a Screenshot
Export the video
You will need to enable Screen recording from the Monitoring Settings (enabled by default) to be able to capture the user's desktop and play it on the Session Player.
You will need to enable Audio recording from the Monitoring Settings (not enabled by default) to be able to capture the input/output audio and play it on the Session Player.
Accessing the Session Player
The Session Player can be accessed from many places, such as the Dashboards, Monitoring Reports, etc. You can launch the Session Player by clicking the Movie Camera icon, anywhere you see it. For example:
To access the Session Player form a BI Report, right-click a row on a Grid widget, and select the View record option from the context menu:
Session Player Modes
The player can be used in two modes:
Live View Mode
With the Live View mode, the Session Player turns into a fully functional remote desktop client. You can view a real-time stream of the user’s desktop, take remote control of it, or freeze the input. Note that, the Live View is available only when a user is online. You will see ‘Live view’ on the player's title. The 'Live' indicator on top of the player will also turn into orange color.
History View Mode
With the History View mode, you can use the Session Player to view previous desktop session recordings of the user. You will see ‘History view’ on the player's title. The 'Live' indicator on top of the player will also turn into white color.
Both modes allow you to see detailed list of Notifications (Behavior Alerts) and Activities related to the user. If Audio recording is enabled, you can also hear recordings of both sound outputs and inputs (speakers/line-out, microphone/line-in). You can also export the video as an MP4 file.
Basic Navigation
1. Use the Play/Pause buttons to play/pause the video.
2. Use the Rewind, Fast Forward, and the Beginning/End buttons to control the playback. Note that, these controls aren’t available on the Live View mode.
3. Use the Speaker button to turn sound on/off.
4. You can also drag the Play Head to move back and forth on the recording timeline.
5. When Notifications is turned on (see the Viewing Notifications and Activities section), you can click a Notification Indicator to jump to a time where a rule violation incident occurred.
6. If the Timeline is grey, it means video recording is available for that time. If it’s black, it means video recording is missing. There might be several reasons for missing recordings for a period of time. For example, the user was logged out, the agent was disabled, screen recording turned off, locked session recording is turned off, etc. Check out this Knowledge Base article to learn about troubleshooting video recording issues.
7. You can see the Time and Date of the recording. Click on either the Time or Date to enter a new time/date.
Live Mode Controls
There are three special buttons available on the Live Mode, using which you can control the user’s desktop.
1. Invoking the Ctrl+Alt+Del Screen (Windows):
Use the Warning button to send CTRL+ALT+DEL command to the user’s computer. This will bring up the Ctrl+Alt+Del Screen , where you can access options to change the account password, switch a user, open the Task Manager, etc.
2. Freezing User Input:
Use the Padlock button to freeze/unfreeze user’s input. When input is frozen the user won’t be able to use their keyboard or mouse*.
3. Remote Control:
Use the Remote-Control button to take full control of the user computer*.
*Notes About the Remote Control Feature
Remote Control will only work if you have the ALLOW REMOTE CONTROL enabled on the Monitoring Settings > Screen settings.
You can show a message to the user when the Remote Control / Freezing User Input mode is activated by using the MESSAGE DURING REMOTE CONTROL and the MESSAGE DURING INPUT FREEZE options on the Monitoring Settings > Screen settings.
Taking Screenshots
1. Use the Camera button to take a screenshot of the desktop and save it as a PNG file.
Downloading / Exporting Videos
1. Click the Cloud Download button. A pop-up window will open.
2. On the Video params pop-up window, select a date range and specify time range, video speed, frames per second, and an email address. You can also disable sound if wanted. Click the Start export button.
3. Once the video is ready, an email will be sent to the specified email address(es) with a link to the video for download.
You can view a list of all the exported videos and download them from the System > Video Export screen. Note, some restrictions apply.
Note that, if domain restriction is enabled for exporting data, then you can only send export emails within that domain. If it’s left blank, then any email addresses can be used. Check out the Outgoing Exported Data section for more information.
Viewing Notifications and Activities
1. Click the Notification button.
2. You will see a list where you can switch between Notifications and Activities. You can also search for an activity using the search button.
3. Click on any notification/activity to move the Player Head to the time when the notification/activity occurred.
Viewing / Adding / Removing Tags
You can add custom tags to the video for auditing, tracking or other purposes. Tags let you mark a time on the video and add a label to it. You can also add notes.
1. Click on the Notifications icon.
2. Select the Tags tab. You will see a list of existing tags (if any).
3. Click the Add new tag link to create a tag. This will open a pop-up window where you can specify the tag details such as tag name, date, time, and notes.
4. Click on a Tag to move the player head to the time the tag was created.
5. Click the X button to delete a tag.
Session Playback Under End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)
When E2EE is enabled, the Session Player will mask the screen on both the Live View and History View modes, and you will see an "Encrypted" message. A Decrypt button will also be displayed which will allow you to view the data:
Clicking the Decrypt button will ask you for the passphrase:
If the passphrase is correct, you will see the unencrypted video:
Note that, you might also need to enter the passphrase when exporting a video from the Session Player:
Please check out this Knowledge Base article for more information about End-to-End Encryption.