WinWhatWhere

Monitor computer time and usage

Do you want to know all the cool Web sites your employees aresurfing to, but you're afraid to ask? Do you like to know how much time youremployees spend running Doom instead of working on billable projects? If yourusers' computer activities concern you, you need WinWhatWhere.

The latest incarnation (version 97.1) of this usage and time monitorsupports Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 3.x. Unlike monitoring programs thatjust capture the time when you start and finish executing a program,WinWhatWhere provides a great deal more information, including the program name,caption of the active window, start and elapsed times, keystrokes while the useris in the application, mouse clicks, and mouse travel distances. If you runWinWhatWhere in a network environment, the software also captures network userID and workstation name.

WinHow
Installing WinWhatWhere is easy. The software package contains twohigh-density diskettes. To install the single-user version of the softwarequickly, run install.exe on your computer and accept all the defaults. Fornetwork installation, follow the same steps, except choose to make the extractedfiles accessible through a new or common share. After you install the softwareon the server, you do not need to run the install program on individ-ualworkstations; WinWhatWhere will automatically install the necessary files on theclient computers.

Once you complete installation of the execuTables, run the wwwsetup.exeprogram to finish the program setup. This program lets you tailor howWinWhatWhere's data collection module, w3.exe, will function for a single useror multiple users. The setup program uses a tabbed dialog to switch between theproduct's functional areas. To enable mouse tracking, for instance, you click onthe Mouse tab and select the appropriate option in the dialog window. You canclick the Startup tab to automatically start WinWhatWhere whenever Windows loads(single-user version only).

WinWhatWhere can also run w3.exe in a completely stealth manner. Severalconfiguration options let you tailor how the software will behave with the user.The lowest level of stealth activity is Normal, and the software runs in atypical window users can view. The highest level is Hidden, and the execuTableprogram is viewable only in the Windows Task Manager. You can select the BlockAll Exits check box to prevent users from shutting down the w3.exe program.WinWhatWhere also includes a utility, W3 Deep Cover, that lets you rename thew3.exe program to confuse sneaky users who want to interfere with yourintelligence gathering.

WinWhat
Data collection is only one-half of WinWhatWhere's features. The softwarealso includes two reporting utilities: W3 History and W3 Quick View &Export. The history program lets you generate reports on user or applicationactivities. It also lets you select data from the database, apply filters to thedata, view detail information about the database records, and generate databasesynopsis reports.

The Quick View & Export utility has two primary functions. The firstfunction, Quick View, lets you quickly view the detail data in the database.This function has no filtering or special selection capabilities; you merelyselect the database file, and a list of detail records appears in a Detailwindow. Screen 1 shows a typical view of detail records. The utility's secondfunction, Export, does not offer a significant number of options. You can selectthe fields you want to export and the type of file you want to create; choosebetween comma-separated variable-length (CSV) or tab-separated text. Thisfeature lets you move WinWhatWhere's data into a sophisticated database whereyou can create more detailed reports than those the History program supplies.

WinWin
WinWhatWhere is a helpful, easy-to-use program for tracking computer usage.The software's reporting and data exporting capabilities let you create basicreports on how your resources are being used, and you can export data to createa comprehensive, long-term database on system usage.

Network and site licenses for the software are available, and the productcomes with technical support at no extra cost. You can download a free trialversion of the single-user product and full network release of WinWhatWhere atthe company's Web site.