# Desk-Ops Agent 0.2.0 Desk-Ops Agent 0.2.0, public label Beta 1, is the first build we ship to a client machine. It's a tray dot and a panel that show whether this machine's Desk-Ops service is healthy, and whether Desk-Ops is working on it right now. The agent reads and reports; the one thing it writes is the log zip you ask for. Last updated: 2026-09-01 Canonical: https://desk-ops.com/docs/agent/release-notes/ Release date: September 1, 2026 ## What Beta 1 does ### The dot and its colors One dot in the tray, its color set by a check that runs every 30 seconds. - **Green** — the service is up, the reading is fresh, and your management plane still confirms this machine. - **Blue, pulsing** — a Desk-Ops session is connected to the machine. - **Amber** — no fresh reading in the last 90 seconds, or your management plane hasn't confirmed the machine. - **Red** — the machine's Desk-Ops service is down. - **Gray** — Desk-Ops setup hasn't finished. A stale reading never shows as red or blue. ### The panel - Left-click the tray icon to open it. It repeats the dot in words: a status word, one plain sentence, the agent's version. - Each vital is named with the age of its reading — whether the machine's Desk-Ops service is answering, and whether your management plane confirms the machine. - It docks to the right edge of the screen as a full-height strip, or floats as a corner card. - It stays on screen and on top while a run or a session is live; you can also pin it by hand. ### When the service is down 1. While the dot is red, the panel says what to do if the service doesn't come back on its own, and points to `Start listener` in the tray's right-click menu. ("Listener" is our word for the machine's Desk-Ops service.) 2. `Start listener` shows up only when setup has finished and the service is down. Clicking it asks the machine's own Desk-Ops setup to start the service — the agent itself can't start, stop, or reconfigure it. 3. The panel confirms "Start requested," or says the request was refused and that an administrator can start the service — a click never looks like nothing happened. ### During a Desk-Ops session A run card shows the goal in the client's own words, the ticket and run IDs, a step meter, and one row per step. When a run finishes, the panel reports its verdict word for word — and says plainly if a run has stopped updating. Its footer states that runs on this machine are operated by AI — the EU AI Act Article 50 disclosure. ### Collecting logs - Ask, from the tray's right-click menu, and it zips its diagnostics into a local folder — then opens that folder. - The zip lists what was collected and what was missing, so a missing input is a line, not an error. - It uploads nothing on its own. At most, a short receipt note names the file, the machine, and what went in — and only if your Desk-Ops setup turned that on. - If the zip can't be written, the panel shows a red line naming the folder and the Windows error. ### Installed in the open - Arrives through your IT's managed channel and starts at sign-in. - Shows up under its own name in the Startup and Apps lists — it's meant to be found. - Closes itself when your IT uninstalls it through Windows Apps. - Never updates itself: each release is a new installer from your IT. The agent holds no credentials or tokens, listens on no port, records nothing, and never acts as a remote control or an off switch. ## Fixed before you saw it - The panel no longer hides while a run is in progress or a session is connected. - The run card keeps pace with the run, instead of trailing it by up to half a minute. - The dot no longer flickers between blue and green mid-session. - A slow management-plane check no longer stalls the panel's other readings, or briefly pops a window on screen. - A failed `Collect logs` now says so in the panel — naming the folder and the Windows error — instead of failing silently. - The docked panel stays above a window that reopens across it, and drops behind a full-screen app. - Uninstalling closes the agent first, so no orphaned program is left running. An administrator can confirm the agent's whole footprint with the tools already on the machine. Nothing about the agent is hidden. ## Measured, not promised Two things we tested: how the service recovers on its own, and how quickly the blue dot catches up to a live session. - When the machine's Desk-Ops service stops, the machine's own Desk-Ops setup normally starts it again — the agent neither restarts nor supervises it. - Measured on a Desk-Ops lab machine over three days: after the service stops, it's back without anyone touching the machine — within minutes on a machine already running, longer right after a cold boot. - The blue dot is an indicator, not a guarantee: it can arrive up to 30 seconds after a session opens, and linger about half a minute after one ends. - A stale reading always wins over a confident one. ## Not in Beta 1 - Code signing. Builds reach machines over your IT's managed channel, and nothing from Desk-Ops will ever ask you to disable SmartScreen or Defender. - A remote kill switch, or any remote enable or disable of the agent. - Stopping or restarting the machine's Desk-Ops service from the tray. `Start listener` is a request to the machine's own setup, not a control. - Screen, keystroke, or video recording by the agent. Desk-Ops records an operator run as evidence; the agent does not. - Self-updating. - Broader machine coverage — more machine classes get the full managed view in Beta 2. - GA adds no features. ## Getting Beta 1 installed Windows, one install per machine, put there by your IT or by Desk-Ops over a managed channel. There's no public download link. Your IT removes the agent through Windows Apps; there's no Quit item in the tray, because the agent is meant to stay running while it's installed. ## Support during the beta Support cases start and end with the log zip: 1. right-click the tray icon 2. choose `Collect logs` 3. then read the zip's file name to support — or attach the zip yourself The user guide's ["Working with support"](https://desk-ops.com/docs/agent/user-guide/index.html#support) section has the short version; its "When to act" section covers a dot that stays amber or gray. Part of the Desk-Ops Agent beta documentation · [desk-ops.com](https://desk-ops.com/index.html)