Mimic won't capture login process

[ccardimon]

Having a spot of bother with Mimic. I'm trying to capture an important in-house application. My problem is Mimic doesn't "see" the application until AFTER I have logged into it. I've been asked to capture the login process. Any suggestions?

[RamonS]

Use a screen recorder like HyperCam to capture the screen to an AVI file. Then play the AVI and capture the region with Mimic, or import the AVI into Mimic (should be possible, guessing a bit here) assuming it is the same size as the other frames. I use the AVI trick often for screen shots, especially when dealing with processes that run very quickly using my test data. You can step forward frame by frame if needed.
My guess is that the application with the login screen does not create a handle at that point, which means Mimic has no means to know that the app exists.
Thinking of it, you could just set Mimic to capture a region and set the region so that it is identical with the login screen. Then it wouldn't matter if Mimic sees the app.

[ccardimon]

So, if I wanted to capture I did in the application after logging in, then I would have to run Mimic twice:

First time: Set Mimic to region to capture the logon screen

Second time: Set Mimic to application to capture more clicks in the application after logging in -- giving Mimic the chance to grab the app's handle

Does this sound right?

[SteveS]

A virtual PC could be the answer.

I had a similar issue, I had to document installing Windows... That's a real chicken and the egg scenario.

I ended up using a virtual PC, capturing the whole window from the host PC and cropping the virtual software's frame out of each screen shot (I might have captured the Window's content to do this, can't remember the fine detail).

Microsoft had Virtual PC 2007 as a free download, and there are other virtual PCs available. The only issue you might have is finding an operating system and licence/ activation code.

HTH

[RamonS]

So, if I wanted to capture I did in the application after logging in, then I would have to run Mimic twice:

First time: Set Mimic to region to capture the logon screen

Second time: Set Mimic to application to capture more clicks in the application after logging in -- giving Mimic the chance to grab the app's handle

Does this sound right?

Yes! Just make sure that the frame sizes stay the same, otherwise your movie will look a bit funky.

[ccardimon]

Part of the problem is the frame size changes. The login window is quite small. The application is much larger, the size of the entire screen.

[RamonS]

So you set the region to be the size of the entire screen. Just make sure that you have an appropriate background.

[ccardimon]

I guess I would have to set the background to a neutral - what - nothing?

[RamonS]

Or the default Windows classic blue. Most people won't notice it because they looked at it for decades (unlike the new cutesy Windows backgrounds). I"d set it to something rather than nothing.

[ccardimon]

Roger that.

[ccardimon]

I ended up using a virtual PC, capturing the whole window from the host PC and cropping the virtual software's frame out of each screen shot

What did you use for cropping? I can't figure out how to do this using Mimic.