# Getting started with Investigations
The Investigations module allows you to delve into specific technical metrics to give you a better understanding of the overall digital experience of your employees.
## Accessing Investigations
To access an investigation, choose one of the following options:
1. Select **Investigations** from the main menu.
* Open an existing **Shared** or **Private** investigation grouped by investigation tags, and listed within the main menu.
* Click the **New** button within the main menu to create an investigation.
2. Select **Investigations > Manage investigations** from the main menu.
* Open an existing investigation or create a **New investigation**.
{% hint style="info" %}
Refer to the [Managing Investigations](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/managing-investigations) documentation for tagging, importing, sharing, exporting and managing investigations.
{% endhint %}
## Built-in investigations
### Investigations installed from Nexthink Library
Nexthink offers a set of preconfigured investigations that you can manually install from Nexthink Library. Customize, copy and leverage these built-in library investigations to accelerate the creation and adoption of effective investigations.
Refer to the [Nexthink Library](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/nexthink-library) documentation for more information.
{% hint style="info" %}
Install the [Nexthink Library Investigations starter](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/library-packs/it-operations/investigations-starter-pack) pack with predefined investigations to quickly gain insights on common issues without manually writing NQL queries, or using Nexthink Assist or Visual editor to query data.
{% endhint %}
## Custom investigations
Creating an investigation from scratch allows you to monitor specific types of data and metrics according to your own needs and use cases.
Refer to the [Creating investigations](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/creating-investigations) documentation for more information.
## Creating investigations
Create a new investigation following one of these options**:**
* Click the **New** button in the top-right corner of the **Investigations** main menu—left panel.
* Click the **New investigation** button in the top-right corner of the **Investigations** > [Managing investigations](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/managing-investigations) page.
* Click on the **New Investigation** button in the top-right corner of an existing investigation page—which opens a new investigation tab.
After [creating an investigation](#creating-investigations), build your investigation query using [Visual Editor](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/creating-investigations/visual-editor) or [NQL editor](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/creating-investigations/nql-editor) from the investigation page.
Alternatively, with the support of [Nexthink Assist](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/search-and-nexthink-assist/using-nexthink-assist#query-data-with-assist), you may build investigation queries without any prior knowledge of **Visual editor** or NQL.
## Understanding investigation results
The system displays the investigation results as a table.
By default, the maximum number of query results is 10,000 rows displayed in the Nexthink web interface. The export to CSV feature returns up to 1,000,000 rows. When running an investigation, up to 500 rows are loaded at a time.
Refer to [Analizing investigations](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/analyzing-investigations) for more information.
### Investigation timeframe
Select the timeframe of the displayed data using the **active during** drop-down in the **Visual editor** or the `during past` keyword in the **NQL editor**.
#### Timeframe for events
The system limits the results to events within the selected time period.
#### Timeframe for objects
The system limits the results to the active inventory within the selected timeframe. This means the system outputs objects detected during the selected timeframe.
The selected timeframe automatically applies across metric columns computed for a given object.
{% hint style="info" %}
The source collection and computed metric have the same timeframe.
{% endhint %}
## Granting permissions for Investigations
{% hint style="info" %}
Refer to the [Roles](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/administration/account-management/roles) documentation for a detailed description of **Permissions**, **View domain** options and [Data privacy](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/administration/account-management/roles#roles-dataprivacy) granularity settings.
{% endhint %}
To enable proper permissions for Investigations, as an administrator:
1. Select **Administration >** [Roles](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/administration/account-management/roles) from the main navigation panel.
2. Create a **New Role** or edit an existing one by hovering over it.
3. In the **Permissions** section, scroll down to the **Investigations** section to enable appropriate permissions for the role.
### View domain impact on Investigations permissions
The table below shows what users with full and limited [View domain](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/administration/account-management/roles#roles-viewdomain) access can do, assuming the necessary permissions are enabled.
| Permission | Full access | Limited access |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Create private investigations; use global search | | |
| Manage shared investigations | | |
| Share private investigations | | |
| View Nexthink Assist (you explicitly consent to our [updated data processors](https://docs.nexthink.com/legal/global-privacy-hub/nexthink-data-processing-schedule)) | | |
| View shared investigations | | |
***
RELATED TOPICS
* [Managing Investigations](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/managing-investigations)
* [Visual editor](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/creating-investigations/visual-editor)
* [NQL editor](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/creating-investigations/nql-editor)
* [Investigations NQL examples](https://docs.nexthink.com/platform/user-guide/investigations/investigations-nql-examples)
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| Share private investigations |