For end users

Your IT team picked Murmur. Here's what it means for your computer.

Murmur is a small program your company is installing on your laptop. It quietly uses spare power — the moments your computer would otherwise be idle — to help your team run things like risk calculations and machine learning models. It doesn't touch your files, doesn't watch what you do, and gets out of the way the moment you need your computer back.

Takes about five minutes. You'll click a link, click Install, and approve one Windows prompt. That's the whole thing.
First, the email

You probably got a link from IT. Here's what it does.

Your IT team sent you an email with a link that looks something like install.your-company.com/setup. Clicking that link opens a page with one button: Install. The link is unique to you and expires in 24 hours, so it's safe even if a coworker accidentally sees it.

If you're not sure the email is real, ask your IT team before clicking. It should come from someone on your help-desk team or an address ending in your company's domain.

The install

Five minutes, five steps

You'll only do this once. Murmur stays installed quietly in the background after that — you don't need to launch it, sign in, or check on it.

1

Open the link in your email

Click the link your IT team sent. It opens a page on your company's Murmur server — a single screen with your name and an Install button.

What you'll see: a friendly page that says “Welcome, [your name]” with one big Install button.
2

Click Install

That button downloads a small file called bootstrap.exe. It's about 2 MB and takes a second or two to download.

What you'll see: a download notification at the bottom of your browser.
3

Run the file you just downloaded

Double-click bootstrap.exe (in your Downloads folder, or click it from the browser's download bar). Windows may ask if you're sure — that's normal for any new program.

What you'll see: a small window briefly, then the next prompt.
4

Approve the Windows permission prompt

Windows will pop up a blue box asking “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” This is Windows's standard prompt for installing any program. Click Yes.

What you'll see: the blue Windows User Account Control prompt, with Murmur's name and your company's name on it.
5

Wait about a minute, then close the window

The installer does its work. When it's done, you can close the browser and go back to whatever you were doing. No restart needed. No icon to launch. You're finished.

What you'll see: a confirmation message, then nothing. That's on purpose — Murmur runs quietly.
What Murmur is — and isn't

The clearest possible boundary

This is the part most people want to know first. Murmur is not monitoring software. It uses spare computing power, period. Here's the line.

What Murmur does

  • Uses spare CPU and graphics-card power when you're not
  • Runs in the background, like Windows Update
  • Pauses the moment you launch a heavy app, video, or call
  • Pauses on battery power so it doesn't drain your laptop
  • Pauses when your computer gets warm
  • Talks only to your company's own Murmur server, over an encrypted connection

What Murmur does not do

  • Read your files, emails, photos, or browser history
  • See your screen, camera, microphone, or notifications
  • Track your keystrokes, mouse, or which apps you use
  • Slow your computer down when you're using it
  • Use your phone hotspot or limited home data plan unprompted
  • Send anything outside your company's network
After it's installed

How to check on it, pause it, or remove it

You shouldn't have to think about Murmur after it's set up. But if you ever want to look under the hood, here's where to find it.

How to tell it's running

Open SettingsAppsInstalled apps and look for Murmur. You can also see it in Task Manager under Background processes when work is happening. If you don't notice anything, that's by design.

How to pause it

You don't need to. Murmur pauses itself the moment you start using your computer for something demanding — opening a video call, launching a game, switching to battery. If you want to pause it manually, ask IT and they can do it remotely.

How to remove it

Open SettingsAppsInstalled apps, find Murmur, click the three-dot menu, and choose Uninstall. Or ask IT to remove it from your machine remotely.

What happens when you sleep, shut down, or travel

Closing your laptop puts Murmur to sleep with everything else. It only does work when your computer is awake and plugged in. Travel and home WiFi are fine — it only talks to your company's own server, when there's connectivity.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask

If yours isn't here, your IT help desk can answer it — or use the contact form.

Will it slow my computer down?

No. Murmur is designed to use only the power your computer isn't already using. The moment you launch a video call, a game, a heavy spreadsheet, or anything that needs the processor, Murmur pulls back automatically. If you ever notice slowdown that you can trace to Murmur, tell your IT team — that's a bug they want to fix.

Will it drain my battery?

No. Murmur pauses itself the moment your laptop unplugs and runs on battery. It only does work while you're plugged in.

Will it use my home internet or my phone hotspot?

It uses very little network. Murmur sends and receives small amounts of data, mostly only when you're on your work network. If your IT team has configured it to skip metered connections (the default), it won't do work over your phone hotspot at all.

Can I close my laptop or put it to sleep?

Yes — everything works exactly the same as before. Closing the lid sleeps the whole computer. Murmur picks up where it left off when you open it again, only if you're plugged in and not actively using the machine.

What happens if I uninstall it?

Nothing breaks. Your computer goes back to exactly how it was before. Your IT team will get a notification that the device dropped off, and they may follow up to ask if there was a problem — but you won't lose any of your own work, files, or settings.

Is this monitoring software? Can my employer see what I'm doing?

No. Murmur cannot see your screen, your keystrokes, your files, or which apps you're using. The only information it sends back to the server is the kind of math work it just finished — the same way Windows Update reports that an update succeeded. It does not have the technical capability to monitor you, even if someone tried to make it.

Why did my IT team install this?

Companies need a lot of computing power for things like risk simulations, model training, and overnight reporting. Renting that power from a cloud provider is expensive, and it sends company data offsite. Your IT team is using the spare power on the laptops the company already owns — which is cheaper and keeps everything in-house.

What if something feels wrong — who do I contact?

Your company's IT help desk is the first stop. They can pause Murmur on your machine remotely, look at the logs, or remove it entirely. If you're not sure who to ask, the email you got from IT will have a contact address.

Are you the IT admin deploying Murmur?

This page is for the people whose laptops you're enrolling. The full deployment guide — license activation, MDM packaging, fleet console, and console URLs — lives in the docs site.

Open the deployment guide