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Session Player

Updated over a month ago

Introduction to Session Player

The Session Player is a powerful tool designed for comprehensive monitoring and forensic analysis. It allows you to view a user's screen and audio recordings in high detail. If the user's computer is currently online, the player enables real-time view of the user’s desktop and allows you to interact with it.

In addition to playing session recordings, the Session Player provides a suite of advanced features for real-time oversight, investigation, and auditing:

  • Take Remote Control: Remotely control a user's computer in real-time without requiring RDP or any third-party remote software, providing a seamless way to deliver hands-on technical assistance or intervene during high-risk activities.

  • Freeze Input: Freeze a user's inputs by locking their keyboard and mouse, allowing you to instantly halt suspicious or unauthorized actions as they happen to prevent potential data breaches or policy violations.

  • Send Ctrl+Alt+Del: Activate the Windows Security Options screen by sending the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” command, which enables you to manage system-level tasks—such as accessing the Task Manager, switching users, or changing passwords—even during a remote session.

  • Track Events: Track user Activities and behavior rule violation Alerts directly on the player timeline to simplify auditing by highlighting exactly when specific events occurred.

  • Add Tags: Add Tags with notes to recordings to create a searchable record of critical moments, facilitating efficient case management and easier auditing or investigation.

  • Export Evidence: Export still images and videos for evidence gathering, providing tangible, time-stamped documentation for legal proceedings, HR reviews, or compliance audits.

  • Multi-Monitor Support: The player supports tracking and displaying activities across multiple monitor setups.

  • Virtual Desktop Compatibility: It is fully compatible with virtual desktops, including those from Terminal Servers.

Session Player Timeline

The player timeline respects the configured Timezone setting in Configurations > Settings > Locale, displaying the full day while correctly clipping sessions that cross the midnight threshold.

Session Recording Prerequisites

To record and view a user's desktop with the Session Player, you must enable Screen Recording in the Monitoring Profiles (this setting is on by default). To capture and play back user audio, you must enable Audio in the Monitoring Profiles, which is disabled by default.

Accessing the Session Player

Here are a few ways to launch the Session Player:

  • From dashboard grid widgets: Click the Movie Camera icon, available in the grid widget(s) of most dashboards.

  • From a grid row: Click the Three Dots icon or right-click on a row, then select View record from the Context Menu.

  • From thumbnails: On screens like the Live View > Snapshots dashboard, you can click on any thumbnail to launch the Session Player.

  • From Employee's or Computer's Details: On the Employee's details or Computer's details details screen, click the Live View button.

Session Player Modes

The Session Player offers two distinct viewing modes: Live View and History View.

Live View

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 and take remote control of it.

Here are the player controls available in the Live View mode:

1. Activate Live View: Click the Live button near the top-right corner to enable the Live View mode. You can also enable Live View by selecting it from the Calendar drop-down menu on the left side of the Session Player window. When the player is in Live View mode, the Live button will turn orange, an orange border will appear around the video, and the pay head will also turn orange.

The Live View mode is only available when the user is online.

2. Deactivate Live View/Switch to History View: There are several ways you can exit the Live View mode (and switch to the History View mode): selecting a date from the Calendar menu, moving the Play Head or setting a new Date/Time (bottom-right corner).

3. Navigate Timeline: Hovering over the Timeline Rail displays a precise time tooltip that follows your cursor, allowing you to pinpoint the exact moment of an activity. Click to position the playhead to that location.

4. Play/Pause Video: Click the Play / Pause button to play or pause the video.

5. Send Ctrl+Alt+Del: Click the Exclamation icon to send the CTRL+ALT+DEL command to the user’s computer. This will bring up the Security Options screen, where you can access options to change the account password, switch a user, open the Task Manager, etc.

6. Freeze Input: Click the Lock icon to freeze/unfreeze the user’s input. When input is frozen, the user won’t be able to use their keyboard or mouse.

You can send a message to the user when this command is activated by configuring it from the Message to display section in Screen Recoding monitoring settings.

7. Take Remote Control: Click the Cursor icon to take remote control of the user's computer.

8. Toggle Sound: Click the Speaker icon to toggle the audio.

Note that the Audio option must be enabled from the monitoring profile for audio to be recorded.

9. Standard / Reconstructed Video: Click the Standard Video / Reconstructed Video button to switch between Standard and Reconstructed Video Modes. Note that this feature is exclusive to macOS.

10. Zoom In/Out: Click the Zoom drop-down menu to change the zoom level of the video.

11. View Log of Events: Click the Alert icon to open the Log of Events panel.

12. Export Video: Click the Export icon to export the video.

13. Take a Snapshot: Click the Camera icon download a still image of the video you're currently viewing. This will save the snapshot as a PNG file.

History View

In the History View mode, you will be able to see previous session recordings of a user.

To view a past recording, it must be within your retention period.

Here are the player controls available in the History View mode:

1. Select Date: Click the Calendar drop-down menu on the left side of the Session Player to select a date to view the recording for the date.

2. Select Computer: If the user has more than one computer, click the Computer Name (e.g., “win-035khor8tek” in the screenshot above) to select another computer from the list.

3. Zoom In/Out: Click the Zoom drop-down menu to change the zoom level of the video.

4. Switch to Live View: Click the Live button near the top-right corner to enable the Live View mode.

5. View Log of Events: Click the Alert icon to open the Log of Events panel.

6. Export Video: Click the Export icon to export the video.

7. Take a Snapshot: Click the Camera icon to download a still image of the video you're currently viewing. This will save the snapshot as a PNG file.

8. Set Playback Speed: Use the Rewind and Fast Forward buttons to slow down or speed up the playback. Click Reset speed to reset the speed to normal (1x).

9. Toggle Sound: Click the Speaker icon to toggle the audio.

10. Standard / Reconstructed Video: Click the Standard Video / Reconstructed Video button to switch between Standard and Reconstructed Video Modes. Note that this feature is exclusive to macOS.

11. Play/Pause Video: Click the Play / Pause button to play or pause the video. You can quickly rewind or forward the video by clicking -10 s and + 10s.

12. Navigate Timeline: Hovering over the Timeline Rail displays a precise time tooltip that follows your cursor, allowing you to pinpoint the exact moment of an activity. Click to position the Play Head to that location. Alternatively, you can drag the Play Head on the Timeline to go back and forth through the video.

Darker areas on the Timeline indicate that no recording is available for that period. This can happen for several reasons, such as the Agent was disabled, the user logged out, Screen Recording was turned off, etc., or other issues. For troubleshooting, please refer to this Knowledge Base article on video recording issues.

12. Set Date/Time: You can set a new Date/Time from the bottom-right corner.

Switching Between Standard and Reconstructed Video Modes

This feature is available on macOS only.

Click the Standard Video / Reconstructed Video button to toggle between the two video modes*.

While the Standard Video mode captures constant images of the desktop, the Reconstructed Video feature utilizes our new UI Scanning Engine. It intelligently rebuilds the user’s desktop view in real time using UI metadata, system events, and extracted text. This approach ensures uninterrupted visual monitoring on Mac systems where screen recording permission isn’t available.

Here’s how a Reconstructed Video looks compared to the Standard Video side by side:

*Notes:

  • You will need to enable the Viewing in reconstructed mode option from the Screen Recording monitoring settings for the Reconstructed Video feature to work.

  • The standard Video mode is only available if both Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions are enabled on the Mac. In contrast, the Reconstructed Video mode only requires Accessibility permission to function. If the Screen Recording permission is missing, the Session Player will automatically default to the Reconstructed Video mode. You can find detailed instructions on how to enable these settings in this article.

Benefits of the Reconstructed Video

  • Simplified Permissions: Only the Accessibility permission is required, which can be enabled proactively via MDM software (e.g., JAMF) without requiring direct user consent. This eliminates the need for explicit Screen Recording permission.

  • Stealth Recording: Bypasses the standard macOS privacy indicator (the "Purple Dot") to maintain a discreet and invisible presence for the Agent.

  • Intelligent and Manual Fallback: The Session Player automatically defaults to the reconstructed video if screen recording permission is unavailable. When the permission is available, you can seamlessly switch between the reconstructed video and the normal video mode within the Session Player.

  • Optimized Performance: Features both lower CPU usage and high-speed screen scanning, with most captures completing within a few seconds.

Limitations of the Reconstructed Video

  • Visual Fidelity: The video output is currently limited to black and white.

  • App Compatibility: Application support is limited to those apps using the Accessibility API. Some Electron-based apps (e.g., Discord, Teams, VSCode) have limited support, while others like Slack are fully supported.

  • Text: Text in pictures, charts, PDFs, etc. aren’t captured.

  • Widget Integration: The feature is not yet available for widgets such as Screen Snapshots.

  • Export Capabilities: Video export is not yet supported.

Changing the Zoom Level

Click the Zoom drop-down menu to change the zoom level of the video. Select the Fit screen option from the menu to fit the video inside the window. If the video doesn’t fit in the window area, you will be able to move around the video by clicking-and-dragging anywhere on the video with your mouse. You can also use the mouse wheel and touch gestures.

Viewing Log of Events

Click the Alert icon to open the View Log of Events panel to see all app/web Activities, review Alerts triggered by your rules, and view or manage Tags.

Activities

The Activities tab shows the user’s interactions with apps and websites (like launching a program, opening a document, or visiting a website).

1. Click the Activities tab in the Log of Events panel.

2. Use the Search field to look for specific activities.

3. Click on any activity in the log to jump to the exact moment it occurred on the timeline.

Alerts

The Alerts tab shows the rule violation alerts triggered by the user.

1. Click the Alerts tab in the Log of Events panel.

2. Use the Search field to find specific alerts quickly.

3. Clicking on an alert in the log will take you to the exact moment it occurred on the timeline.

4. You can also see all unique alerts (alerts generated by separate rules) as Location icons on the timeline:

  • The number inside the icon shows how many times the alert was triggered. A smaller icon with no number indicates a single alert.

  • Hover over an icon to see a pop-up list of all individual alerts for that rule. From this list, you can click on an alert to jump to its exact moment on the timeline.

Tags

The Tags tab allows you to view and manage tags.

A tag is a specific moment in a video with a label and notes. This is a useful feature for auditing, tracking, and case management, as it lets you highlight important points in time.

1. Click the Tags tab in the Log of Events panel.

2. Use the Search field to find specific tags quickly.

3. Clicking on a tag in the log will take you to the exact moment on the timeline.

4. On the timeline, unique tags (tags occurring within a specific timeframe like a minute) are shown as Location icons:

  • The number inside the icon shows how many tags were added to that moment. A smaller icon with no number indicates a single tag.

  • Hover over an icon to see a pop-up list of all the tags for that moment. From this list, you can click on a tag to jump to its exact moment on the timeline.

5. Click the New tag button to add a new tag. The New Tag window will pop up:

a. Select or enter a Tag Name.

b. Select the Date and Time.

c. Enter your Notes.

d. Click the Submit button.

4. Click the Edit icon to edit a tag (editing a tag is similar to adding a new tag). Click the Remove icon to remove a tag.

Exporting Videos

Click the Export icon to open the Video Export window:

1. Use the Date selector to choose the specific day of the recording you wish to export.

2. Choose between Export full day or Export specific time. If you select a specific time, use the From and To fields to define the exact period for the clip.

3. Select your desired Video speed and FPS. You can also use the Disable sound option to remove the audio track from the recording (Note: Audio is only recorded if the Audio monitoring channel was enabled in the user's Monitoring Profile at the time of recording).

4. In the Notify the email below after export finishes field, specify the email address where the secure video download link will be sent*.

*If you used the Specify a domain to allow Teramind data export option (Configurations > Settings > Security) to restrict exports to a specific domain, then you must use an email address within that approved domain.

5. Click the Start export button to start the export process. When the export is ready, you will get an email to the email address you specified above. The email looks like this:

Click the link in the email to download the video.

You can view a list of all the exported videos and download them from the System > Video Exports screen.

Retrieving Archived Video (Cloud)

Recordings older than ninety (90) days are automatically moved to an archive. This process is in place to optimize storage usage and minimize processing overheads.

If you attempt to play an archived recording, a notification will appear:

Once the retrieval is complete, you'll receive an email at your account's address:

Session Playback Under E2EE (On-Premises)

When End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) is enabled, the Session Player will mask the screen on both the Live View and History View modes, and you will see an "E2EE (end-to-end encryption) is enabled" message:

Enter your passphrase and press the Decrypt button to view the recording.

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