How to record your PC for 24 hours & 365 days
How to use Bandicam as a Computer Blackbox: PC Monitoring Software

What is the "Computer Blackbox" function?

Black boxes are commonly used in vehicles for surveillance and/or insurance purposes. Similarly, Bandicam’s “Computer Blackbox function” serves as a PC Monitoring/Surveillance Software by recording your PC screen and sound nonstop for 24 hours & 365 days.

Chapters:

0:25

What is a computer blackbox?

1:09

How to use Bandicam as a computer blackbox

2:46

How to start recording automatically when your computer starts.

4:27

How to cut parts of a video quickly without compromising the quality of the original video.

Some ways to use Computer Blackbox

Most users: Record your full computer screen continuously starting from when Windows starts.
Quality Assurance (QA) jobs: Easily find mistakes or defects of your products by recording your computer screen.
PC Monitoring/Surveillance: Check if employees are following their company's policy.
Trading system: Record your trading system of stocks, bonds, futures, options, or forex, which can help you monitor price fluctuations almost every second.
Server/Network monitoring: Record the traffic screen of web servers, network servers, and storage servers.
CCTV/Camera: Record the screen of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras nonstop for over 24 hours.

To use Bandicam as a Computer Blackbox, please follow the steps below:

If you use the "Around mouse" recording mode and "Windows Task Scheduler," you can automatically record your computer screen when Windows starts, without the recorder status bar. This function allows you to do PC Monitoring or Surveillance.

Note: This method is for advanced users using the Windows scheduler. More simply and easily, if you want to record only one monitor screen every time you start Windows, check out the tutorial on how to use a secret screen recorder.

Please click the [Advanced] button, and check the "Start Bandicam minimized to tray" and “Turn off tray balloon notifications” options.
If you want to create video files and separate them by the hour, choose "1 hour" in the recording time menu and select the "Start new recording" option as shown below.
Select the recording option depending your preference and close Bandicam.
- [Option 1] Record your monitor screen: Select the "Fullscreen" menu.
  - - To record a specific monitor, select the display you want to record and check the "Always hide control bar."
  - - To record dual/multiple monitors at once, click "All display" and "Always hide control bar."
- [Option 2] Record only audio: Select the "Audio only" recording mode.
Follow the steps below to start recording automatically with Windows Task Scheduler:
- Type "Task Scheduler" in Start, and click "Task Scheduler."
- [General] tab: Click "Create Task...," and type the name of the task such as "Bandicam start recording." Then, check "Run with highest privileges."
- [Triggers] tab: Select the "At log on" option.
- [Actions] tab: Click "Browse..." and select the executable file (C:\Program Files\Bandicam\bdcam.exe). Then, enter "/record /nosplash" in "Add arguments."
If you follow the instructions as explained above, you can automatically record your computer screen without the recorder status bar.

Essential Tips and FAQs for Computer Blackbox

Tip 1) How to prevent users from deleting recorded videos

To prevent standard users from deleting videos, such as while recording company computers, you should enable [Recording] and disable [Deleting]. Please visit this page to learn how to enable [Recording] but disable [Deleting] on Windows.

Tip 2) How to safely store recorded videos on a network computer

Security-critical institutions such as banks or insurance companies may want to record and store each employee's computer screen on a central computer over a network.

Tip 3) How to record dual/multiple monitors

To record multiple monitors, you can select the 'All display' recording option, open multiple instances of Bandicam, use the 'Select a recording area' function, or extend the rectangle recording window.

Tip 4) How to automatically delete old video files

If you record your computer nonstop for over 24 hours and 365 days, you may want to automatically delete old files to avoid exceeding your hard disk’s capacity. In this case, you can automatically delete old movie files by using the 'Task Scheduler' and 'ForFiles' commands on windows.

Tip 5) How to automatically backup videos to another HDD or Google Drive

You can automatically move recorded files to another HDD or Google Drive using the "Robocopy" command and "Windows Task Scheduler".

Tip 6) How to cut parts of a video quickly while maintaining the quality of the original video

If you’ve been recording your desktop screen for a long duration, you may want to remove any unwanted parts of the video. Use Bandicut Video Cutter to trim parts of a video without losing the original video quality.

Tip 7) How to turn off the monitor and record a video

Usually, if you turn off your monitor while recording, the recording will stop automatically. However, if you connect an HDMI dummy plug to the computer and create a virtual monitor to record, you can record your computer screen without an active monitor.

- Amazon.com: HDMI Dummy Plug

Tip 8) Best settings for Computer Blackbox

1) AVI is better than the MP4 file type when Bandicam is abnormally terminated due to power outage and other issues while recording.

2) If you have a problem with hardware-accelerated video codecs such as H264 (Intel Quick Sync Video, NVIDIA NVENC or AMD VCE/VCN), try the H264 (CPU) video codec.

3) To reduce the file size of the video, you can choose from the options below:
- Change the video size from "Full size" to "Half size" (Optional)
- Change the FPS (frames per second) value from "30" to "10" (Optional)
- Select the "H264" video codec (Recommended)
- Change the quality value from "80" to "10" (Optional)
- Uncheck the "Record sound" option (Optional)

Tip 9) Power & sleep settings

If you want to record your computer for a long duration, select the "Never" option in "Power & sleep settings" to keep your monitor on, which is optimal.

Tip 10) Repeat screen capture (Continuous screenshot)

If you set the capture repeat to "1," and click the image capture button, the screen capture will repeat every "1 sec".
- If you set the capture repeat to 600 seconds, one image will be created every 10 minutes. This function is useful when you monitor your PC for 24 hours & 365 days as image files. (This value can be set from 0.1 to 9999 seconds.)