WINDOWS LOGGER
In late summer of 2015, I was looking at some programming videos and ran across one showing how simple it is to run a script in the background that grabs keystrokes. This type of application is called a key logger and are usually used for “up to no good” activities. I was interested in whether I could apply this to logging how much time users spend in each application and log that information when they switch from one program to another.
My daughters are older now, but, this type of program could be used to monitor where young people (or old :-)) go on the internet, for example. Still, I thought I would pursue writing a script that I call Windows Logger. The basic theory is that the script grabs the current program name and window (document) title. It starts a timer and when it detects a different active window, it saves a log entry with the last program used and the time spent there. Some hotkeys control various features of the script as it runs unseen in the background. The program can be set to run on startup. If users request it, I can make the function key assignments changeable.
A couple of screen shots are below. The PDF documentation and executable are in here. windows-logger
PROCESS MONITOR
At work, we sometimes have users whose computers are very slow or have applications that frequently are hung or “Not Responding.” I felt it could be good to have a program log those events for the purpose of knowing which application(s) are misbehaving. Process Monitor is very similar to Windows Logger but it only logs entries for processes that are frozen, hung or “Not Responding” for say 20, 30 seconds or more. Many, many programs go unresponsive when computers start up or when programs are loading the first time for the day. By looking only at process that remain hung for a while, one knows that they are not working properly. Some hotkeys control various features of the script as it runs unseen in the background. The program can be set to run on startup. If users request it, I can make the function key assignments changeable.
A couple of screen shots are below. The PDF documentation and executable are in here. process-monitor
