Insight from Interactions 1

Screen Capture
Introduction to
screen capture.



September 20, 2005
By Zigler Nir
Insight from Interactions 2
Agenda
What is Screen Capture?
ScreenAgent required characteristics
Capture Methods
Screen Capture Stream
Screen Components
ScreenAgent CAPI Registration
ScreenAgent Installation
ScreenAgent in a Citrix/Terminal-Server Environment
ScreenAgent Limitations



Insight from Interactions 3
Screen Capture
Screen Capture - What is it?
Capturing screen activity that is taking place on a screen,
transporting it to a server for storage, and enabling playback of the
captured data upon request.



Screen Capture - Why do we need it?
In our digital world, listening to a voice only recording is not enough
to fully experience the interaction that took place.
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Screen Capture Requested Characteristics
Transparent & undetectable screen capture.
Minimal footprint.
Compatibility.
Ease of installation (mass-deployment support).
Capture quality.

Insight from Interactions 5
ScreenAgent Effectiveness Metrics
There are four inter-connected measurements for ScreenAgent
effectiveness:

Component compliance.
Data rate.
Playback quality.
Host performance.
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How to capture screen?
This is the most simple and nave method
How we can improve it?

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Screen Capture Scraper Method


Insight from Interactions 8
Screen Capture Scraper Method


Scraper Pointer
Scraper Pointer
Scraper Pointer
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Scraper Method Summary
The screen is virtually divided to rectangles.
The rectangles are periodically scanned for changes (left to right, top
to bottom).
Rectangles that a change occurred in their boundary will be
recaptured.
Optimization for capturing the cursor.
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Screen Capture Hooking Method


Applications
GDI Hook
Screen
Virtual
Screen
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Hooking Method Summary
A hook is made to the OS GDI layer.
Each GDI command is duplicated and sent to the capture component
as well as to the video card.
The method of hooking to the GDI is different between OS
platforms:
Win9x/WinME - Win32 Hook to the GDI32.dll
WinNT - Replacing the video kernel driver.
Win2k/WinXP - Usage of a Mirror Driver.

Insight from Interactions 12
Hooking Method Summary
Windows Applications
Tb2Wdg95
GDI
Video Driver
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M
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Windows Applications
Tb2Wdg40
GDI
Video Driver
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M
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M
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Windows Applications
Tb2Mirror
GDI
Video Driver
Win9X/WinME WinNT Win2K/WinXP
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Screen Capture Stream
The ScreenAgent capture stream is composed from Packets. Each
packet can be from one of the following types:

Key Frame (KF) [ ]
Key Frame packets represent a capture of the entire screen.

Delta [ ]
Delta packets represent the capture difference from the previous
packet.
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Screen Capture Stream - Example
KF


Deltas


t
. . . . . . .
KF


t
KF


KF


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Components Participating In the Record


CLS Server
Screen
Logger
Workstations with
ScreenAgent
Registration Im alive
Start Record
for Agent X
Start Record
Captured Data
Insight from Interactions 16
The Record Process Inside View


Workstation
Screen
Logger
Capture
Engine
Comm
Module
ScreenAgent Process
Packet
Throttle Buffer
Packet Packet
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ScreenAgent CAPI Registration
Parameters sent to the CAPI upon registration:
GUID
IP Address (IP Address:Port)
Machine Name
OS Login
Extension+SwitchId pairs
or
AgentId+SwitchId pairs
OPTIONAL
Insight from Interactions 18
Registration in a Free Sitting Env
Database
User Admin

Name = Nir Zigler
AgentId = 2982
.
.
ScreenAgent
Ext=3625, Sw=1
CLS
Ext=3625
Agent Nir logs-in to Ext 3625
using AgentId 2982
AgentId 2982 in Ext
3625

Login Table
Register
IP=192.168.10.1
Ext=3625, Sw=1
Universal
Agent Table
PBX
Incoming Call
for Ext=3625
Register
StartRecord
Insight from Interactions 19
Registration in a Free PC Env
Database
User Admin

Name = Nir Zigler
AgentId = 2982
OSLogin =Nirz
.
ScreenAgent
CLS
Ext=3625
Agent Nir logs-in to Ext 3625
using AgentId 2982
AgentId 2982 in Ext
3625

Login Table
Register
IP=192.168.10.1
OSLogin=Nirz
Universal
Agent Table
PBX
Incoming Call
for Ext=3625
Register
StartRecord
Insight from Interactions 20
ScreenAgent Installation
Interactive Installation
The installer navigates through a set of windows and supply information required
for the installation.
Mandatory Information that is required during the installation include: CLS IP
address, Screen Reporting IP address, Identification mode.

Silent Installation
ScreenAgent is installed without user interaction.
ScreenAgent setup enables silent installation, it doesnt perform push deployment.
Mandatory information is supplied to the installation though the usage of the
Agent.cfg file.

Upgrades
The purpose of an upgrade is to reinstall a new set of binaries while retaining the
current configuration.


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Installation Switches
Setup.exe -NICE_SHUT
Reboots the workstation at the end of the installation (on WinNT, Win2K, WinXP).

Setup.exe -UNIQUE_AGENT_USERNAME
Invoke silent installation with Unique OS Login registration mode.

Setup.exe -WS_INFO:E1234,S1; E9876,S2
Invoke silent installation with Extension registration mode.
E = Extensions
A = AgentIds
S = SwitchIds

Setup.exe OLD_WS_INFO
Performs silent upgrade.


Insight from Interactions 22
Citrix/Terminal Server
What is Terminal Server?
An environment were all the applications are installed and run from a centralize server. The
user connects to the server with a dumb terminal that send keyboard strokes & mouse
movements as Input to the server and receives screen display as output.

How does it works?
When a user connects to the server, a new session is created.
A session represents a so called virtual computer that is dedicated to the user.

Citrix Advantages
Optimized protocol between the Server and the Clients.
Clients can run on any OS platforms.
Supports Application Mode that enables load balancing.

Insight from Interactions 23
Citrix/Terminal Server
Word
Calc
Session #1
UserName: NIR
Excel
Word
Session #2
UserName: EFRAT
User NIR connects to
the Server
User EFRAT connects
to the Server
SA
SA
Insight from Interactions 24
Screen in a Citrix/Terminal Server Env
The ScreenAgent is installed on the server (Once per server).
Scraper is the only available capture method in a Citrix/Terminal
Server environment.
To reduce CPU/Memory usage capture component and record
buffer are initialized only on StartRecord request.
In a Citrix/Terminal Server Env the ScreenAgent port consists of
BasePort + SessionId
Example: Server IP is 192.178.20.20, BasePort is 3020.
First ScreenAgent IP is : 192.178.20.20:3021
Second ScreenAgent IP is : 192.178.20.20:3022
Insight from Interactions 25
ScreenAgent Limitations
ScreenAgent cant capture accelerated graphics (i.e. DirectX,
OpenGL).
ScreenAgent cant capture Full Dos windows.
ScreenAgent process is protected from termination on all OS platform
except on WinXP when the user has Administrator privileges.
When installed on WinNT with another remote-control application the
ScreenAgent must be installed in scraper only mode.
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Q
A
&
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