How to choose what a desktop memory app records

Choose recording settings around the question you want to answer later. Finding a saved document, remembering a page you saw and reviewing time across projects need different kinds of evidence. More recording is not automatically more useful.

For a first setup, start with a small, non-sensitive workflow and inspect what it produces before extending it.

Separate file search from screen capture

If your main problem is finding documents, begin with a selected project folder. Local file indexing searches supported files that are available there. It does not require a complete visual record of your desktop.

If you need to recover something briefly visible in an application, captured screen text may help. That requires the relevant capture to have been enabled at the time, and the source must still be retained.

Write down one concrete goal, such as “find the brief I read yesterday”. Use that goal to decide which source you need.

Review the exclusions first

In CiteSilo Settings, review excluded applications and title keywords. Include contexts you do not want in your work history, such as a personal communication app or a sensitive client workspace.

A title keyword depends on the title the application exposes. It is not a content-aware rule that understands every sensitive document. A page with an unexpected title may need a different exclusion or a deliberate pause.

For especially sensitive work, pause before opening it and check the app’s current state. Do not rely on a guessed keyword match.

Decide whether images are necessary

Titles-only mode is useful when window titles are enough for your purpose. It blocks the related screenshot and rewind capture paths, but titles themselves can contain names, document subjects or confidential text.

If you enable images, review retention as well. A visual history can retain more detail than you intended, including content elsewhere in a captured view. Do not assume a screenshot contains only the phrase you later search for.

Meeting recording has separate controls. Review those explicitly rather than treating one setting as a universal switch for every feature.

Run a harmless trial

Open a test document with a distinctive phrase and use the app briefly. Then inspect the resulting activity and retained sources. Check whether the material you expected to exclude is absent and whether the useful clue is searchable.

If a result is missing, investigate the setting or capture timing. This trial is a configuration check, not proof that every future screen will be recorded.

Review the setup as your work changes

A new project can introduce a different application, title pattern or confidentiality requirement. Revisit exclusions and retention when that happens. Remove recording you no longer need instead of carrying an old setup forward indefinitely.

The local storage and controls page explains how local history and optional cloud processing differ. Use it alongside your actual settings before enabling additional capture.