Process Discovery
Tool

Double-clicking either EXE bundle — chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe (per-machine, needs admin) or chronos-0.3.4-setup-user-bundle.exe (per-user, no UAC) — opens the wizard below instead of installing silently, and both bundles show the same one. The standalone MSI is not silent either: it has its own, plainer set of Windows Installer dialogs covering the same ground. The screenshots here are the bundle wizard.

Everything the wizard offers can also be set on the command line, so any choice made here can be reproduced unattended across a fleet. The reverse does not hold — these properties have no wizard field and are set on the command line only: CHRONOS_DATA_DIR, CHRONOS_MODELS_DIR, DISABLE_VAD, MERGE_AUDIO_DEVICES and MUX_AUDIO_INTO_VIDEO (04 — Installation Guide); CLOUD_CONCURRENCY, CLOUD_DB_BACKUP_INTERVAL and CLOUD_DELETE_AFTER_UPLOAD (06 — Cloud Storage).

One default also differs by route rather than being wrong either way, so set it explicitly if it matters to you: EXPORT_TRANSCRIPTS is on for the standalone MSI but off for both EXE bundles, where the wizard's checkbox or an explicit EXPORT_TRANSCRIPTS=1 turns it on.

Page by page

1

Welcome — product summary and the Master Service Agreement. Next stays disabled until you accept.

2

Install Type — Typical records locally with safe defaults and skips to the summary (fully headless, no filters, no dates). Custom adds the three pages below. Choose Custom for any real engagement.

3

Privacy — observation period (OBSERVATION_START_DATE / OBSERVATION_END_DATE, validated as you type) with optional daily hours (OBSERVATION_DAILY_START / OBSERVATION_DAILY_END, set as a pair), user-ID anonymization, the deny/allow app and URL lists, and transcript export. Includes a panel explaining where to read an app's process name off Task Manager.

4

Visibility — hide from the Programs list and Start menu, plus the end-user controls: tray icon (USER_UI), the on-screen pill, then user authority (USER_CONTROL_LEVEL) and how long a pause lasts before recording returns on its own (PAUSE_AUTO_RESUME_MINUTES, accepted here as 0–60) side by side. Everything here is off by default — auto-resume included, at 0, meaning a pause lasts until the person ends it — so clicking straight through gives the historical headless install.

5

Cloud — optional upload to your own S3, GCS, Azure or MinIO bucket. Leave the bucket blank to keep everything on the machine.

6

Ready — a summary of every choice, including the observation period and end-user controls. Read it before clicking Install; it is the last free chance to fix a mistyped date.

7

Progress — installs the VC++ Redistributable if missing, then Chronos. When it finishes, log off and back on: recording starts from the logon task, not in the session that ran the installer.

# Default installation
.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log

# Custom data directory
.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart CHRONOS_DATA_DIR=D:\Chronos /log install.log

# Default installation
msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log"

# Custom data directory
msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart CHRONOS_DATA_DIR="D:\Chronos" /L*V "install.log"

Both EXE bundles also open an interactive wizard when double-clicked, covering the same settings as the properties above. See 03 — Setup Wizard for a page-by-page walkthrough with screenshots.

# Check process status
Get-Process chronos

# View configuration
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos"

# Tail logs
Get-Content "C:\ProgramData\Chronos\logs\chronos-task.log" -Tail 20

Chronos can automatically upload recordings, audio, and database backups to cloud storage. Cloud storage is configured at install time by passing parameters to the Windows installer. Credentials are encrypted using Windows DPAPI and stored securely in the registry.

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=aws-s3 `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=my-chronos-bucket `
  CLOUD_REGION=us-east-1 `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE `
  AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log" `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=aws-s3 `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=my-chronos-bucket `
  CLOUD_REGION=us-east-1 `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE `
  AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=gcs `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=my-chronos-bucket `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  GCS_CREDENTIALS_PATH=C:\path\to\service-account-key.json

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log" `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=gcs `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=my-chronos-bucket `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  GCS_CREDENTIALS_PATH=C:\path\to\service-account-key.json

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=azure-blob `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=my-container `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT=myaccount `
  AZURE_STORAGE_KEY=base64encodedkey==

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=azure-blob `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=my-container `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  AZURE_CONNECTION_STRING="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=...;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net"

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  CLOUD_ENABLED=1 `
  CLOUD_PROVIDER=minio `
  CLOUD_BUCKET=chronos-data `
  CLOUD_ENDPOINT=http://minio-server:9000 `
  CLOUD_PREFIX=acme-pilot `
  AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin `
  AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin

# Check cloud settings in registry
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos\Cloud"

# Watch upload activity in logs
Get-Content "C:\ProgramData\Chronos\logs\chronos-task.log" -Wait | Select-String "cloud|upload"

Chronos can selectively blur screen recordings and mute audio based on application names and/or browser URLs. This protects sensitive content (email, messaging apps) while recording work activity. Filters are configured at install time or updated via registry post-install.

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  DENIED_APPS="Teams" `
  DENIED_URLS="mail\.google\.com;.*\.youtube\.com"

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log" `
  DENIED_APPS="Teams" `
  DENIED_URLS="mail\.google\.com;.*\.youtube\.com"

# Only record Edge browser and Notepad, blur everything else
.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  ALLOWED_APPS="msedge.exe;notepad.exe"

# Record Edge only when on GitHub or GCS console, blur all other sites and apps
.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  ALLOWED_APPS="msedge.exe;Explorer.EXE" `
  ALLOWED_URLS="github\.com;console\.cloud\.google\.com"

# Record Edge on any google.com site EXCEPT Gmail
.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  ALLOWED_APPS="msedge.exe" `
  ALLOWED_URLS=".*\.google\.com" `
  DENIED_URLS="mail\.google\.com"

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log" `
  ALLOWED_APPS="msedge.exe;notepad.exe"

# View recording filter settings from registry
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" | Select-Object DeniedApps, AllowedApps, DeniedUrls, AllowedUrls

# Add or update denied apps
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" -Name "DeniedApps" -Value "Teams;Slack"

# Add or update denied URLs
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" -Name "DeniedUrls" -Value "mail\.google\.com;.*\.youtube\.com"

# Remove a filter (set to empty string)
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" -Name "DeniedApps" -Value ""

# Restart Chronos to apply changes
Stop-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Chronos"; Start-Sleep 3; Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Chronos"

Chronos can anonymize the user identity before any data is stored or uploaded. This is required in jurisdictions with strict worker-protection regulations (for example, Italy) where deployed solutions are prohibited from tracking individual agent performance.

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  ANONYMIZE_USER_ID=anonymize

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log" `
  ANONYMIZE_USER_ID=anonymize

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log install.log `
  ANONYMIZE_USER_ID=pseudonymize

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart /L*V "install.log" `
  ANONYMIZE_USER_ID=pseudonymize

# View privacy setting from registry
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" | Select-Object AnonymizeUserId

Chronos records silently by default, with no user interface at all. Deployments that need transparency — or a works-council agreement that grants employees a right to pause — can opt in to a notification-area icon showing recording status and, separately, a user-accessible pause. Every setting below is off by default; a default install installs no user-facing program at all.

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart ALLUSERS=1 `
  USER_UI=1

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart `
  USER_UI=1 USER_CONTROL_LEVEL=pause PAUSE_AUTO_RESUME_MINUTES=30

# A default (headless) install reports 0 / none / 0 / 0
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" |
    Select-Object UserUiEnabled, UserControlLevel, UserUiShowPill, PauseAutoResumeMinutes

# ...and the tray program is not present on disk at all
Test-Path "C:\Program Files\Chronos\bin\chronos-tray.exe"

A process-discovery engagement usually runs for a fixed number of weeks, but the machines are provisioned before it starts and collected long after it ends. Give Chronos a date range and it stays installed but idle outside it — no second visit to each machine to switch recording on, and no data captured outside the window you agreed with the works council. An optional pair of daily times narrows that range further, to the shift you actually agreed to observe. Leave all four blank and Chronos records whenever the machine is on, exactly as before.

Both dates are inclusive and evaluated against the machine's local calendar date. One side may be left open — a start with no end, or an end with no start. At the end of the window Chronos stops recording and stays installed and idle; it does not uninstall itself. Outside the window neither screen nor microphone is captured — a machine deployed a week early opens no video file and no audio stream until the start date arrives.

A bad period stops recording rather than being ignored. The wizard refuses to advance past the Privacy page while a date is malformed or the start is after the end, so an interactive install cannot ship one. An unattended install can: msiexec and the bundle's /quiet path accept whatever you pass. Chronos then records nothing, reports observation.state = misconfigured at /recording/status, names the offending value in <data dir>\logs\chronos-task-<date>.log, and the tray — where it is deployed — tells the user to contact IT. This is deliberate: a typo must not widen what is recorded. Recording nothing for a day is recoverable; recording outside the agreed period is not.

The daily hours are an optional limit inside those dates, and they only ever narrow the range — outside the dates nothing is recorded whatever the clock says. The start time is inclusive and the end time is exclusive: 09:00–18:00 records from 09:00:00 up to but not including 18:00:00. An end time earlier than the start is an overnight window: 22:00–06:00 records from 22:00 through midnight until 06:00 the next morning, which is how a night shift is configured. Both times must be supplied together — one alone is a configuration error, as are two equal times — and both are the machine's local 24-hour clock, at minute granularity.

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart ALLUSERS=1 `
  OBSERVATION_START_DATE=2026-09-01 OBSERVATION_END_DATE=2026-09-28

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart `
  OBSERVATION_START_DATE=2026-09-01 OBSERVATION_END_DATE=2026-09-28 `
  USER_UI=1 USER_CONTROL_LEVEL=pause

msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart ALLUSERS=1 `
  OBSERVATION_START_DATE=2026-09-01 OBSERVATION_END_DATE=2026-09-28 `
  OBSERVATION_DAILY_START=09:00 OBSERVATION_DAILY_END=18:00

.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /install /quiet /norestart `
  OBSERVATION_START_DATE=2026-09-01 OBSERVATION_END_DATE=2026-09-28 `
  OBSERVATION_DAILY_START=22:00 OBSERVATION_DAILY_END=06:00

With USER_UI=1 the tray icon explains itself: before the window opens it reads not recording - observation period starts 2026-09-01, after the end date not recording - observation period ended 2026-09-28, and outside the day's hours not recording - recording hours are 09:00-18:00. A second menu line always shows the configured window, so "when does this start?" is answerable without reading the registry. If USER_CONTROL_LEVEL is pause or full, the menu also offers Start recording now so a user who is ready early can begin. That exception covers the one closed stretch they overrode and nothing beyond it: it lapses at the next boundary of the window, or at the next logon, whichever comes first. Starting at 07:00 under OBSERVATION_DAILY_START=09:00 records straight through 09:00, and the 18:00 close still happens on time. With none there is no such control and the dates are absolute.

Two states cannot be started at all, and in both the menu item is greyed out and the endpoint returns 403. After the end date it reads the observation period has ended — every other hold-off has a later boundary that reopens it, this one does not, so an override would have no bound to expire at; extending an engagement means setting a new end date and restarting the scheduled task. A window that cannot be parsed reads recording cannot start - ask your it administrator: with no readable window there is no period to record inside, so starting would mean recording with no end date. Each boundary crossing is written to the recording_events table with source=schedule; a user starting early is recorded as source=user, so the audit trail distinguishes the two.

# What the installer stored (empty on an unlimited install)
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos" |
    Select-Object ObservationStartDate, ObservationEndDate, ObservationDailyStart, ObservationDailyEnd

# What the recorder currently believes (tray-enabled installs)
# Read the token file at call time, never from a cached copy: Chronos mints a new one
# on every start, so a token saved earlier stops working after the next restart.
Invoke-RestMethod http://127.0.0.1:3030/recording/status `
    -Headers @{ 'X-Chronos-Control-Token' = (Get-Content 'C:\ProgramData\Chronos\control-token' -Raw).Trim() } |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty observation

The dates and hours can be changed after installation by editing ObservationStartDate, ObservationEndDate, ObservationDailyStart and ObservationDailyEnd under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Uniphore\Chronos (or HKCU\Software\Uniphore\Chronos for a per-user install) and restarting the Chronos scheduled task. This works in both directions — extending an engagement needs no reinstall. While Chronos is running the window is re-evaluated every 30 seconds, so a machine left on over the end date stops on its own and a daily boundary can be up to half a minute late; the video segment in progress is finalized first. A value that does not parse — a date that is not YYYY-MM-DD, a time that is not HH:mm, one daily time without the other, or a start after the end — stops recording rather than being ignored. Chronos stays installed and running, records nothing, reports observation.state = misconfigured at /recording/status, and (where the tray is deployed) tells the user the recording period is not configured correctly and to contact IT. The launcher names the value at fault in chronos-task-<date>.log. This is deliberate: ignoring a typo would leave the machine recording continuously, or all day inside its dates, which is the one outcome an observation period exists to prevent and the only one that cannot be undone afterwards. All four values also survive an upgrade or repair that does not repeat them — see Upgrades keep these settings, which also lists the older settings that do not.

Ending an engagement early through the installer needs one extra switch, because a date has no "off" spelling: an empty OBSERVATION_END_DATE= cannot be told apart from not passing it at all, so a reinstall keeps the configured period rather than removing it. Say so explicitly instead:

# Clears all four values; the machine records continuously again.
# Note the verb: this runs against a machine that already has Chronos on it, so it is a
# reconfigure, not an install. /repair is what re-applies properties to the installed build.
.\chronos-0.3.4-setup-enterprise.exe /repair /quiet /norestart CHRONOS_CLEAR_OBSERVATION=1

# Or against the standalone MSI. REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus is required for the same
# reason: a plain /i of the version already installed fails with 1638, and it is the 'm' and 'u'
# in the mode string that rewrite the registry values the observation period actually lives in.
msiexec /i "chronos-0.3.4-setup.msi" /qn /norestart ALLUSERS=1 `
  REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus CHRONOS_CLEAR_OBSERVATION=1

Drop ALLUSERS=1 if the machine has a per-user install — and use the per-user bundle rather than the enterprise one, since a bundle can only reconfigure the scope it installed.

CHRONOS_CLEAR_OBSERVATION=1 cannot be combined with any OBSERVATION_* value — to change a period, pass the new dates, which replace the old ones on their own. In the wizard, clearing the date and time boxes on the Privacy page does the same job: once you have edited them, leaving all four empty is read as "no period" rather than as silence. Editing the registry directly works too — delete the four values and restart the scheduled task.