SoftActivity

Activity Monitor 3.0 released

August 26th, 2003

This is the major update that includes lots of new useful and time saving features

  • Install Agent remotely from Activity Monitor on all computers in network (Windows NT/2000/XP only. Administrator rights required)
  • Install Agent in silent mode, e.g. from log on script
  • Schedule log file periodical download from all remote computers and automatic export to get periodical computer usage reports for time saving
  • Control remote computers:
    • Run program or command
    • Open web page for remote user to view
    • Open document for remote user to view
    • Turn Off or Restart remote computer
    • Log Off remote users
    • Turn On screensaver
    • Terminate processes/close programs remotely
  • Includes all new dpexec.exe utility that allows to start processes on remote computer without having Agent installed there. It can copy programs to remote computer for execution and show results back just like telnet. It works on Widows NT/2000/XP. Start dpexec /? to get help on usage.
  • Send instant message to remote computers
  • Advanced computers list management:
    • choose between 3 different list views
    • sort list by any column
    • customize columns visibility and width
    • monitoring windows activate as you click on computers in list
    • automatically set columns width for better view
    • easily tile or cascade monitoring windows to see them all
  • Monitoring Session Recording. You may record swl-log file locally on Activity Monitor computer instead of remote Agent computers. It contains all data from monitoring window.
  • If your computer is connected to several networks (has several NICs) you can choose which network you want Activity Monitor to bind to
  • Restore opened monitoring windows at startup is a great time saving feature that will completely restore Activity Monitor view when you restart it
  • Set default directories for log files and exported files
  • Log file export. New csv-file export appeared instead of txt-file export. CSV files can be easily imported into database or spreadsheet programs
  • Automatically export log file after downloading it
  • Better and faster screenshot resize (on Windows NT/2000/XP) and scrolling
  • Remotely configurable Agent startup warning message. You can tell employees that their actions are recorded
  • More reliable remote files downloading. Now it does not stop or freezes.
  • More reliable detection of remote computers presence. Now they don’t go offline in list without objective reason
  • Close all monitoring windows at once
  • Password is now required (if you set it) to uninstall or reinstall Agent and Activity Monitor.
  • Improved installation programs for both Agent and Activity Monitor
  • New modern look of icons and toolbar images
  • Added support for recording visited Internet sites in AOL
  • New HTML based help
  • Duration column on Foreground tab in monitoring window
  • Lots of minor improvements and bugfixes

Version 2.6

  • New option: Do not make offline screenshots when computer is idle
  • It is possible now to use system variables in path to offline log file and offline screenshots. By default %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32 directory is used.
  • Few minor bugs have been fixed

Version 2.5

  • Internet surfing monitoring in real time and offline
  • Now works correctly in DHCP environment, when IP addresses can change frequently
  • Agent can run in “Aware” mode, informing user that he is being monitored
  • Autoreconnect to the remote PC after connection has been dropped
  • Clipboard operation on all tabs in monitoring window
  • Save the content of any monitoring window tab to the local file
  • Few minor bugs are fixed and some minor improvements are implemented

Version 2.0

  • Offline logging. Logging engine runs on the remote computers all the time, even if you are not connected to it. It logs all keystrokes and programs activations with time stamps. Also it takes screenshots in specified period of time and saves them to the local or shared location. When you connect to this remote computer with Activity Monitor, you may download those logs and screenshots to the local workstation.
  • Log export. It is available to export downloaded log files to MS Excel for detailed analysis, to HTML files with embedded screenshots, to delimited text file for further import to any database. All exports are based on templates, so you can easily customize the look of resulting files.
  • Download files. Download any files from the remote workstation.
  • Foreground application tab added. When user on the remote workstation activates one or another application, it is added to the list with time stamp. So you may see user’s activity history.
  • Active application name is added to the Keystrokes tab, so you can see where user types a text now.

Version 1.0

  • Real time monitoring of users activity for admins in a local network