Local Machine Monitoring Tool

BloomerzUK · 2 Aug 2011 at 10:33

Hi Guys/Gals,

Does anyone know of a local machine monitoring tool (free) that can monitor things like what programs were open when, and for what times (when opened and when closed).

We need this for to see how much work someone has done in the office, at her own request.

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Jake

BloomerzUK · 2 Aug 2011 at 12:55

Anyone?

treehouse786 · 3 Aug 2011 at 09:58

hi

i have heard many similar requests but none quite like yours.

so you dont want to monitor what they do once they are in the program but you want to know when they open and close them? what if someone opens a browser and then they just keep the window in the background, then you would see the same info as someone who opened their browser and played games all day long na?

i know quite a few programs but i think you need to clarify your requirements more

BloomerzUK · 3 Aug 2011 at 10:13

Hi Treehouse,

Thanks for the response. What I require is something that can just track how long programs are open for, at what time and dates etc. Nothing to granular (as in what exactly are they doing.. no keylogging). It's actually a request from one of my colleagues to track how much work she is doing in the day, as she works on hourly pay. We track all of our work hours.

I hope this is enough information.

Many thanks,
Jake

!GasAxe! · 4 Aug 2011 at 11:02

really interested in finding something like this as well, only found something like this but doesnt look good on a work pc !

http://kidlogger.net/

Gas

BloomerzUK · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:16

I've asked on another forum, and I've found something called: Wakoopa. Seems good.. testing it at the moment.

treehouse786 · 4 Aug 2011 at 23:23

a couple more you could try

http://www.desktopshark.com/

http://www.os-monitor.com/

janp · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:14

I've just started using ManicTime (http://www.manictime.com/) at home and find it perfect for keeping track of how long I spend using various applications.
You can set it up to even record how long you spend on particular document.

I'm using the free version, they do have a paid version that has more features.

DefiantAsh · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:18

janp said:
I've just started using ManicTime (http://www.manictime.com/) at home and find it perfect for keeping track of how long I spend using various applications.
You can set it up to even record how long you spend on particular document.

I'm using the free version, they do have a paid version that has more features.

Microsoft Word tells you how long you've been "editing" a document

However if your like me and keep it open throughout the day when on breaks and things, the times soon rack up

At school, admins used something called Master Eye, but that was for controlling/monitoring computers so they could step in and stop us from playing games. (a good 3 years ago now though)

janp · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:34

DefiantAsh said:
Microsoft Word tells you how long you've been "editing" a document

However if your like me and keep it open throughout the day when on breaks and things, the times soon rack up

Indeed Microsoft Word does. However it doesn't track the time I also spend administering servers (via remote desktop), configuring firewalls via Firefox / Telnet and all my other tasks. Whereas ManicTime does and puts in all in a nice table / graph for me to look back on.

As to your second point, agreed that's an issue with most time tracking software I've tried. I ended up setting a short screensaver time (10mins) and then any time the screensaver keeps in, this period gets marked as Idle/AFK.

DefiantAsh · 6 Aug 2011 at 00:12

janp said:
Indeed Microsoft Word does. However it doesn't track the time I also spend administering servers (via remote desktop), configuring firewalls via Firefox / Telnet and all my other tasks. Whereas ManicTime does and puts in all in a nice table / graph for me to look back on.

As to your second point, agreed that's an issue with most time tracking software I've tried. I ended up setting a short screensaver time (10mins) and then any time the screensaver keeps in, this period gets marked as Idle/AFK.

I see.

Well at least you have found something which works for what you need

And i've turned my screensaver off as i used to do a lot of rendering, and when i came out of the screensaver, it would freeze up so i couldn't read the progress of the rendering etc.

BloomerzUK · 10 Aug 2011 at 19:54

janp said:
I've just started using ManicTime (http://www.manictime.com/) at home and find it perfect for keeping track of how long I spend using various applications.
You can set it up to even record how long you spend on particular document.

I'm using the free version, they do have a paid version that has more features.

Thanks ever so much Janp. That has the features I need plus more! We've decided to use it company wide. Kudos.

Jake