Time Lens

Time Lens is XerisOS's kernel-native view of its recent desktop. Press Win+Shift+R or open Time Lens from Apps. It runs entirely in XerisOS's compositor, so individual applications do not need to implement recording. The frame ring stays in RAM until you explicitly save something.

The viewer opens at the newest frame and plays backward. Press Up/Down or click the timeline to choose a moment, Space to pause or resume, P to save the selected frame as a native-resolution BMP in /USER/SHOTS, S to save a GIF clip in /CLIPS, and Esc to return to the live desktop. The saved files can be copied or shared like ordinary files.

The ring uses at most 128 MiB and no more than half of currently free physical frames. Its capture interval adapts to the number of native-resolution frames that fit, so a full ring spans at least ten seconds even on higher-resolution displays. On a high-resolution or memory-constrained machine the samples are farther apart. If fewer than two frames fit, Time Lens cannot record. It pauses capture on the lock screen and while the viewer is open. It does not capture audio or restore application state.

This is an OS-native workflow: inspect a moment across apps, then export only the frame or clip you choose. It is a useful first step toward a stronger Time Lens that could also recover selectable text from a precise past frame. The present implementation does not claim that capability.

Verified October 4, 2026: the host Rewind test passed 64 checks; a separate QEMU guest opened the viewer, showed a frame 10.3 seconds old, and saved a 1280x800 BMP of 4,096,054 bytes in /USER/SHOTS. The exact final staged kernel was booted in a second guest and saved the same-size BMP. Bare-metal Beelink behavior has not yet been verified.