SoftActivity

TS Monitor 6.0 with improved users privacy and email reports

July 30th, 2019

SoftActivity has released TS Monitor version 6.0, a major update of its user monitoring system for terminal services.

SoftActivity now makes it easier to protect employees privacy (such as for GDPR compliance in EU), while still recording all unsafe user activity that helps your organization improve employee productivity and detect insider threats early. Now it also includes admin audit log for improved HIPAA compliance in healthcare industry.

New version allows you to prevent recording of:

  • personal online banking, password management apps, and other personal info of employees and customers. This can help organizations with GDPR compliance.
  • regulated PHI (personal health information) for health-care industry, for improved HIPAA compliance;
  • corporate financial and other sensitive apps;
  • credit card numbers entered by employees, for PCI compliance;
  • and other sensitive, private or regulated information.

What’s new in version 6.0

  • Private apps and websites:
    • Admin can create a list of private apps and websites.
    • SoftActivity will NOT record screen copies, typed keystrokes and window name for private apps and websites.
    • It will only record a fact and duration of usage for private apps.
    • Edit Private apps list on Privacy tab in TS Monitor Configuration app on your servers. By default, it’s populated with popular financial websites and password managers.
  • Application switched to x64 architecture for improved performance.
  • Support of Windows Server 2019.
  • Scheduled email reports with users activity summary. Admins will receive weekly report in PDF format with last week’s stats. To enable this report go to web console – Edit Account – Email Reports tab.
  • Graphical charts added to Dashboard in web console:
Employee monitoring dashboard with charts
*click to enlarge
  • Export reports to PDF from the webapp, including pie charts, and new Attendance report:
Employee attendance report in pdf
*click to enlarge
  • Dashboard: select more than 10 top records to view.
  • Filter all reports by time in addition to days interval. Makes it easier to investigate user activity at a particular time of day.
  • Ability to turn off screenshots panel at the bottom. If you are not using screenshots, you can now turn off the panel completely;
  • Audit Log: view history of web console sign-in and sign-out events, and a log of all changes to the system made by admins and managers. Audit log is stored permanently for a year and cannot be deleted from the webapp. Can be seen only by admins. (Authorization monitoring is a requirement for HIPAA-compliant software).
  • Auto sign-out admins and managers after 14 days, for improved security. Session expiration is a requirement for HIPAA-compliant software (the timeout can be adjusted).
  • View users for Top Websites and Top Programs. Click an arrow next to any app or website to see which users spent the most time on the website:
Top users for website
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  • Web console is now available in Spanish. Switch your language at the bottom right corner.
  • Support of the latest versions of web browsers such as Chrome 7x, Windows Server updates, better compatibility with antivirus products.
  • Improved performance of user session recording and webapp server. Now uses even less server CPU than in previous versions.
  • Configuration app supports dark mode on Windows Server 2019.
  • Other numerous fixes, improvements and optimizations.
  • Database in version 6.0 is compatible SoftActivity Monitor 12 for workstations, and can be shared with that application.
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TS Monitor 5.5 released with Alerts

July 5th, 2018

SoftActivity announces the release of the SoftActivity TS Monitor version 5.5 – its user monitoring software for terminal servers.

This version brings new Alerts based on user actions. You can now get an email alert as soon as a user goes to certain websites, opens an undesirable application at work, or breaks other rules set by the company. It means less time spent monitoring, and instead taking action at the right time when it matters. We have also completely redesigned the web console to show more information on a page and made it easier to navigate.

What’s new in version 5.5:

  • new: Alerts based on user actions:
    • Admin can create a set of alert rules in the web console. If users break a rule, their manager or the admin will get an instant alert;
    • A number of useful pre-defined alert rules is supplied with the system, such as social media websites, files copied to USB, etc. so you can start getting some alerts right out of the box, and start adjusting those rules;

      * click to enlarge
    • Alerts can be based on: visited websites, used applications, typed trigger words (keystrokes), or file operations;
    • Alerts are displayed in the web console and optionally can be sent by email. Alert emails are not sent less than 5 minutes apart, to prevent “alert fatigue”. This interval can be adjusted in settings, in order to receive quicker alerts or to get less emails;

      * click to enlarge
    • In order to start receiving alerts by email, an admin needs to enter SMTP server details in the web console’s Admin Panel. SMTP is used by the system for sending emails securely. Also the admin and managers need to go to Edit Account and enter their name and email address, and make sure “I want to receive alerts by email” check box is on;
    • Managers can see what exactly action by a user has triggered an alert and see screenshots of the violation;
    • New Alerts page allows you to see all alerts (policy violations) in the system and filter them by users, computers, and days interval.
  • new: Complete redesign of the web console with improved user interface:

    * click to enlarge

    • Fits more information on the screen and is easier to navigate.
    • Mobile friendly design: better support of mobile browsers on phones/tablets. View reports on your phone, if it’s connected to the local network, or if your webapp is installed on an Internet facing server and served via HTTPS;
    • Watch the demo video of new web console
  • improved: reduced storage space requirements on the customer’s server for storing screenshots. IntelliSnap mode now records 20-50% less screenshots, will avoid some duplicates, but without missing any important actions by a user;
  • improved: deleting a user in the web console now deletes their screenshots as well to save hard drive space. You can delete a user with all their data in Admin Panel – Monitored Users tab – User
  • fix: removed Keystrokes field from CSV format export, since it was breaking CSV format;
  • discontinued support of Windows Server 2003. Users with Windows Server 2003 are advised to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 or continue using TS Monitor version 5.3 (the last version that supports Server 2003).
  • numerous improvements and fixes

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TS Monitor 5.3 maintenance release

March 21st, 2018

SoftActivity released new version 5.3 of TS Monitor, its user monitoring solution for terminal servers. This is a maintenance release.

What’s new in SoftActivity TS Monitor 5.3:

  • new: support of the latest versions of Chrome browser for Internet recording, which stopped working since Chrome v65;
  • fix: export to Excel (CSV format) in correct encoding for non-English characters;
  • other minor fixes and improvements

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TS Monitor 5.2 released

January 12th, 2018

SoftActivity is announcing the release of new version 5.2 of SoftActivity TS Monitor, user monitoring software for terminal servers.

Now it’s easier to monitor a farm of terminal server with support of new central configuration file. It also includes multiple improvements listed below.

What’s new in version 5.2:

  • new: Central configuration for multiple servers in a farm. Export TS Monitor configuration and apply to other servers during installation in silent mode with no GUI or from command line to an existing installation.
    tsmcfg.exe new command line parameters: /importcfg="C:\path\file.cfg" /centralcfg=on|off
    Read Documentation
  • new: web console: export Dashboard to HTML with company-wide computer usage statistics;
  • new: support of the latest Firefox version 57 for recording of Internet history;
  • new: full screen view of screenshots in web console. Previously screenshots were sometimes hard to see on computers with low resolution since an image was small. Click Full Screen button when viewing a screenshot.
  • improved: keystrokes are now recorded in Windows Store-type of applications in Windows 10. Previously only desktop applications were recorded.
  • improved: user sessions recording for Attendance report is now more reliable. Will record even a previous logon before Agent has been installed. Previously sometimes logons were not recorded. Also shows Remote Client name and IP for RDP sessions;
  • improved: web console: long values that don’t fit into a column are now shown in tooltips;
  • improved: substantially reduced CPU usage by Activity Monitor Server (SalogSrv service). Previously could use up to 100% CPU in some configurations with a lot of computers;
  • fix: web console: list of users and computers on the left side is now correctly sorted;
  • fix: web console: email message bodies were not shown on Email tab in IE browser
  • fix: Attendance report: short sessions that are just few minutes long were not displayed;
  • fix: ability to install a standalone webapp server component without admin console app;
  • other minor improvements and fixes in web console and desktop console application;

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TS Monitor new version 5.1 with Attendance tracking

September 7th, 2017

SoftActivity is announcing the release of new version 5.1 of its monitoring software for terminal servers SoftActivity TS Monitor. Now administrators can track employees’ attendance by viewing log in on log off time of every session. Improved web console also allows to assign access for multiple supervisors in an organization for different groups of monitored employees, organized by departments. Admin can allow managers to view logs only for their department.

What’s new in version 5.1

  • new: Attendance report: view user sessions daily with log in/log off time, duration, top programs, remote client name and IP address, and other session details. Click any session bar to view the details and screenshots filtered only by this session
  • new: access control for supervisor accounts in web console. Administrator can grant access to supervisors/managers for viewing logs only for certain users or departments. Admins can view all users
  • new: organize monitored users by groups/departments in web console. Filter reports by a group, assign supervisors access to groups. To do this go to the Web console – Admin panel – Monitored User Groups tab. Click Add Group and drag some users into it.
  • new: export reports to Excel (CSV format)
  • new: export reports to HTML file: for further printing or saving as PDF
  • new: Administrators can delete a monitored user from the webapp with all their recorded activity data. See Web console – Admin panel- Monitored Users section
  • new: select a number of lines shown in the reports: 20, 50, 100 or more
  • numerous minor improvements and fixes

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TS Monitor version 5.0 with Webapp

April 17th, 2017

SoftActivity announces the release of major update 5.0 of its TS Monitor enterprise monitoring software for terminal servers. Now it combines logs from multiple servers into one Central Database powered by PostgreSQL and includes a new convenient web console for administrators and supervisors.

What’s new in version 5.0

  • new: SoftActivity Webapp for viewing reports, logs and screenshots in browser, combined from multiple servers. The webapp is installed on a customer’s server on-premise or in cloud;
  • new: now using PostgreSQL high-performance server database for storing logs from multiple servers. Installed on the customer’s server by SoftActivity installation package;
  • new: scalable architecture with components installed on the same or separate servers on-premise: TS Monitor client, SoftActivity Webapp Server, PostgreSQL Database Server. (View architecture diagram)
  • new: monitor either a single server or an enterprise terminal server farm;
  • new: create accounts in the web console for multiple admins and supervisors to view logs;
  • support of latest versions of Opera browsers for Internet recording;
  • WARNING: when upgrading from previous versions, old data is not automatically transferred to the new Webapp. To view previously recorded data simply click .salog file in your data directory to open the legacy Log Viewer
  • For more details read these new guides:

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SoftActivity TS Monitor 4.2 released

November 17th, 2016

SoftActivity is glad to announce the release of version 4.2 of its TS Monitor security software for motioning users activity on terminal servers.

What’s new in version 4.2:

  • new: support of Microsoft Windows Server® 2016;
  • new: to improve stability and reliability of recording, TsmSvc service automatically recycles every night;
  • minor improvements and fixes

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