MONITORING SOFTWARE BLOG

Most antivirus products do not detect any threats or issues in SoftActivity employee monitoring software. In fact, there is no viruses, spyware or malware in SoftActivity Monitor software, as long as the downloaded file is digitally signed by Deep Software Inc. All SoftActivity executable and .DLL files are digitally signed.

We recommend to check the file’s signature by opening the file’s Properties – Digital Signatures tab to ensure the file you are installing is an original and has not been tampered with.

• new: View screenshots in sync with reports in Central Logs Database [screenshot]:
  • select a program and view all screenshots for this program in Top Programs report  [screenshot]
  • select a website and view a history of screenshots taken during visits of this website in Top Websites report [screenshot]
  • view screenshots at the bottom of the screen as you navigate through history of used programs, emails, chats, etc.
  • double click a screenshot thumbnail in the bottom panel to view it full size
  • zoom in/out screenshots, view as slide show [screenshot]
  • recommended setting now is to take screenshots from active window only instead of full desktop. It is now default
• new: View History button added in every tab in the Monitoring window that opens Central Log Database for this computer and user
• new: screenshots from remote computers are now downloaded together with logs. Get Agent Screenshots command removed. Click Get Agent Log instead
• new: Options – Location tab: removed folders for screenshots and exports. Screenshots are now stored in the Central Log Database folder under SCR subfolder
• new: Improved compatibility with antivirus products. Now it’s easy to exclude Agent folder from scans in your antivirus to avoid any positive detection
  with future updates of your antivirus product
• Fixes since version 6.5:
  • fix: database conversion error on some computers: “error in statement near s”
  • fix: Activity Monitor crashed on some computers when monitored PC’s IP address changes
  • fix: Adobe Reader hanged on some computers with Agent installed resulting in user unable to open PDF files
  • fix: compatibility issue with Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus caused extremely slow file downloads and copying
  • fix: rare crashes when displaying some HTML email messages
  • fix: on some monitored computers Administrator users could find recorded screenshots by searching for jpg files in Windows
  • improved: support of more than 65K rows for export to Excel 2007 or newer
  • fix: error message on computers with MS Outlook 2010 64-bit about no default email client

Technological change made almost any of modern businesses dependent on computer and Internet resources. However, some employees tend to abuse their computer use during working hours that results in overall decreased productivity and critical information leakage. That’s why, it’s highly important for business owners and managers to use LAN spy software solutions to monitor employee online activities and the whole computer usage.Read More

ESET NOD32 Antivirus may detect SoftActivity Monitor or TS Monitor on your computer as Potentially Unwanted Program(PUP) or Win32/Spy.ActivityMonitor.D or Win32/KeyLogger.ActivityMonitor.AG threat. In fact, there is no virus in SoftActivity software. It only does what is declared in its features on this website, i.e. records user activity on the computers owned by your company. Recording is done with the computer owner’s permission.

To prevent ESET NOD32 Antivirus from detecting this threat you will need to exclude SoftActivity destination folder and/or thread name from scans as described below.

Read More

• new: view screenshots together with all reports on new Screenshots Timeline:
  • new: select a program and view all screenshots for this program
  • new: select a visited website and view history of screenshots for this website
  • new: view screenshots as you navigate through history of used programs, emails, chats, etc.
  • new: double click a screenshot thumbnail in the bottom panel to view it full size
  • new: zoom in/ zoom out screenshots, view them as slide show
  • new: recommended setting is to take screenshots from active window only instead of full desktop. It is now default
• new: Licensing is now for concurrent user sessions instead of named users. For example, 6 users license allows recording of up to 6 any users simultaneously logged to a terminal server. For your existing license this means you can monitor more users than before
• new: Select users and/or groups to monitor. Selecting a Group or All Users option allows monitoring of user accounts created in future or not known by administrator at time of setup
• new: Exclude users and/or groups from monitoring, such as managers and administrators
• new: Recording file operations on all drives: local, network, removable. Select monitored folders and change other settings on Files tab. By default, records removable drives and user’s Documents folder. Previously recorded only USB drives
• improved: Recognizes external hard drives as removable and records file operations on such drives
• new: export File operations report to Excel
• new: improved and more reliable keystrokes recording algorithm, especially on 64-bit Windows editions
• new: database can be stored on a network shared folder on another server. To allow this grant write NTFS permissions to COMPUTER$ account for the shared folder. Only supported in domain. This allows storing databases from multiple servers in a single location
• improved: support of more than 65K rows for export to Excel 2007 or newer
• lots of other improvements and fixes

There is no deny that the Internet provides us with plenty of opportunities to run a business, find any necessary information and communicate with partners and friends. However, the misuse of these opportunities may cause Internet addiction and, what is worse, complete disavowal of reality. Some people really can’t stop pointless Internet surfing all day long, even when they are at work. If you are a business owner and have a staff that gets unrestricted Internet access, you should be aware that any type of cyberslacking may affect your overall business productivity dramatically.Read More

Using Windows Terminal Server, Remote Desktop services or Citrix shared desktop services, or XenApp provide business owners, employers and administrators with a remarkable opportunity to get the most advanced computer resources without spending a fortune. However, such remote sessions sometimes present particular problems for tracking, recording and logging user activity. While traditional computer/Internet monitoring systems and keystroke loggers generally prove to be inefficient or even useless in a terminal server environment, many administrators wonder how to monitor remote desktop sessions of their users secretly and in real-time.Read More