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How to Turn Off the Desktop App's Screen Recording

In this version the ABM Service desktop app records what happens in its own windows, so that your software supplier's support team can replay a problem a user reports. This page says what is recorded, how to switch it off for a PC or for one person, where the recordings are kept and who can read them.

Does the ABM Service desktop app record people's screens?​

Yes, in this version the ABM Service desktop app records what is shown and done inside its own windows, unless recording has been switched off for that PC or that person. It does not record the rest of the screen or any other program, and there is no notice on screen while it records.

A recording holds:

  • What the ABM Service windows showed, and the clicks, scrolling and typing in them. What a person types is recorded as typed, including text they never saved, except in password boxes.
  • A list of what each window asked ABM Service for, including what was saved, such as a comment or a contact's phone number.

Two things are never in a recording. The ABM Service sign-in window is not recorded, so a password typed there never is. The text editor used for a call's documents is left out and shows as a blank area.

Recording is on by default in this version because of a trial the software supplier has agreed with the first companies to use the desktop app, which runs until 9 November 2026; a later version is due to switch the default off. It pauses by itself after three minutes with nothing happening, so a window left open overnight records nothing. The ABM Service website opened in a web browser is not recorded by default.

How do I turn off recording in the ABM Service desktop app?​

Set a registry value named Recording, of type DWORD, to 0 under the key SOFTWARE\DP Systems\ABM Service: under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to switch recording off for everybody on that PC, or under HKEY_CURRENT_USER to switch it off for one Windows user.

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator on the PC, for the whole PC.
  2. Type reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\DP Systems\ABM Service" /v Recording /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f and press Enter. For one person, run the same command signed in as that person, without administrator rights, with HKCU in place of HKLM.
  3. Close ABM Service for each user: choose Exit on its tray icon, the icon beside the clock with the company's initials, or have them sign out of Windows. The setting is read when the desktop app starts, so a copy already running keeps recording until it is closed.

A person's own setting beats the PC's: Recording set to 1 under HKEY_CURRENT_USER turns recording back on for that person even when the PC has it off. With neither value set, the default applies. The same value can be pushed to many PCs with Group Policy or your deployment tool. It is not an option of the ABM Service Desktop machine setup, which takes no setting for recording. The development build reads SOFTWARE\DP Systems\ABM Service Development instead.

Turning recording off does not delete what was already recorded. Delete the Support folders yourself if you want those recordings gone.

Where does the ABM Service desktop app keep its recordings?​

Each ABM Service desktop app writes its recordings first on the PC, in a support folder inside that Windows user's %LocalAppData%\DP Systems\ABM Service folder, beside desktop.log. They are kept there for 14 days, up to 2 gigabytes.

Every five minutes, and once more when the app closes, it also copies them to the site's shared Support folder: the Support folder inside the ABM Service folder in ABM's own system folder, which on most sites is on the file server. Inside it there is a folder for each Windows user, then each company, then each PC. The shared copies are kept for 7 days, up to 2 gigabytes per folder.

  • Everyone at the site can read the shared Support folder, and so anyone there can open anyone's recording: the ABM Service Desktop machine setup creates it and lets every Windows user of the PC change the files in it.
  • When ABM's system folder is not registered on the PC, or the shared folder cannot be written, nothing is copied and the recordings stay on the PC only. A missing or unreachable shared folder never slows the desktop app down; it writes one line to desktop.log.
  • Recordings are not kept in Documents, so they are never uploaded to OneDrive with a user's documents.

How does a user send a recording to support?​

Right-click the ABM Service tray icon beside the clock and choose Open support folder. File Explorer opens that person's recordings on the PC; zip the folder and send it to your software supplier. Open support folder is on the tray icon's menu only while that copy of the desktop app is recording, so it is not there once recording is switched off. When the site's shared Support folder is in use, your supplier's support team may be able to open the recordings there instead, without anybody touching the user's PC.