Important Information for first
time users!To capture
information on a restricted account, such as the Windows XP Guest
Account, you MUST change the directory that the program saves
captures in to one that the account has permission to create files
in. Usually, a folder directly on the C drive, or a folder on a
secondary drive, will work with restricted accounts. You can change
this setting through the options menu.
When this software is first installed, it will place shortcuts to
itself on your desktop, and in your start menu, in order to help you
find it the first time. We HIGHLY recommend that you remove these
shortcuts after you have learned the location of the program on your
hard drive. For instructions on learning the location of the
software on your hard drive, and removing the shortcuts, please view
the “About“ menu at your earliest convenience.
Quick Start
How to start monitoring use of your
computer right away.
Whether you want to monitor your computer while you are away,
retrieve lost information, or monitor your children's activity,
you've chosen the right software for the job.
If this is the first time you have opened the program, you
can start monitoring your computer immediately with just one
button click. All of the program options are preset so that the
software will work immediately, just Click the “Start Capture”
button.
Starting a Capture Project
When you click the “Start Capture” button, a new project will
be created. You will be asked to choose a name for the project.
Pick a name that is easy for you to remember, or leave the
suggested name (the project's date and time). A new folder for
this project will be created in your Projects folder in the
directory where you installed this software.
Capture Types
The software will immediately begin to capture the following
types of information:
·
Any keys pressed
·
Any programs used
·
Any websites visited
·
Screenshots at a given interval,
if selected
Screenshots are not enabled by default, because on older
systems screenshots may take up too much space on the hard drive
or cause noticeable slowdowns.
You may enable or disable any of the capture types, including
screenshots, in the Options window.
Stealth Mode
If you want the program to hide itself from view and remove
itself from the Windows Application list, click the Stealth
button. The program will run silently and capture all activity
on your computer. When you want to make the program visible
again, click
Control + Shift + F5
Viewing Captured Information
You can view what you have captured by clicking any of the
following buttons on the left hand side of the screen:
·
Keystrokes: The keystokes
list displays a list of all keystrokes captured, including
non-alphanumeric keys like Insert and Delete, as well as
usernames and passwords that are normally hidden behind
password masking characters.
In order to give you a better idea of when and why each
keystroke was entered, the keystokes list also includes the
date/time of each keystroke, and which program or website
was currently being viewed when the keystokes were entered.
·
Programs: The program list
displays each program that was used while capturing, and the
date/time each program was first used.
·
Websites: The website list
displays a list of every website that was viewed while
capturing. You can view any website in the in-program
browser by clicking on its URL in the list.
Whenever a website is viewed on your computer while
capturing, the software will capture the source code on the
webpage and save a copy in your project folder. By viewing
this cached copy of the website you can see exactly what was
on the page, even if the website is password protected and
no longer reachable. You can switch between viewing the
cached copy and viewing the live website by clicking the
toggle buttons at the top of the Websites window.
·
Screenshots: The
screenshot list will display a list of all screenshots taken
while capturing. For identification, each screenshot is
named using the date and time it was taken and the program
that was being viewed. You can click on any screenshot in
the screenshot list to view it in the screenshot viewer. Use
the scoll bars to view areas of the screenshot that do not
fit in the screenshot viewer.
Silently Emailing Capture Logs
This program contains a built in email engine that can email
you a copy of the current capture log at scheduled intervals. In
order to do this, you must first enter your mail server
settings. If you don't know your mail server settings, they can
normally be found by opening the program you use to send and
receive email. Look for the “Accounts” area that lists all of
your mail settings.
Step One: Click the “Options” button to display the options
screen
Step Two: Enter your mail server, for example,
mail.YourServer.com
Note: The settings for this program are very similar
to the settings used in Microsoft Outlook. If you are not sure
what mail server or other settings to use, try a search on
Google.com for configuring Microsoft Outlook with your email
account.
Step Three: Enter your mail server's port. This is normally
port 25 or 1025.
Step Four: Enter the Email Address on you want the email to
be sent to. It is a good idea to use an email address that is on
the same server you entered in step two.
Step Five: Enter the email address that the email should
appear to be from. It is a good idea to enter the same email
that you entered in step Four to avoid conflicts with your mail
server.
Step Six: If your mail server requires a username/password
combination, enter them and check the box marked “Use
Authentication.
By default, the program will send log files at attachments.
However, some web-based email accounts like Hotmail/Netscape
have problems receiving attachments. If you find that you cannot
properly receive attachments, uncheck the box labeled “Send as
attachment”. This will insert your log files into the email as
plain-text.
When you are finished, click the “Send Test Message” button.
If configured correctly, you should see a confirmation that the
email has been sent, and it will arrive in your email inbox
momentarily.
TIP: If your web server can't accept email sent by this
program do a google search for “free email pop3” without the
quotes. This will display many email providers that offer free
access. Just create an account and view the provider's help
section for setting up their service in Microsoft Outlook. The
server, ports, and authentication settings will be the same as
the instructions for Outlook.
Using the Scheduler
The program includes a scheduler that lets you schedule
simple tasks to be completed at a given time or interval. The
following tasks can be automated:
·
Start Capture - If the program is
not already capturing a new project will be created and
capture will start automatically.
·
Stop Capture - If the project is
currently capturing, it will be stopped.
·
Email Capture Log - The current
Log will be emailed to you as an text file attachment
·
Clear Capture Log - This will
delete all saved files in your current project folder, as
well as the current capture log. This is useful for saving
space on your computer, or if you plan to leave the capture
running indefinitely and don't want to email yourself
duplicate information.
Scheduled tasks with same date/time entry will be executed in
the order you entered them. For example, if you want to email
the capture log, clear the capture log, and clear all the
project data, at 1:00 pm every Tuesday, you must enter the
events in that order and specify 1:00 pm every Tuesday for each
task. If you were to enter them in reverse order, the capture
log would be cleared before being sent, and your email would
contain a blank attachment.
Other Recommended Settings
We recommend enabling the following settings in the Options
window:
Save Captures in: This is the directory that capture
files will be saved in. In order to capture on restricted
accounts you must change this to a folder that the account has
Write Permission in. For example, to capture on the XP Guest
Account you could choose a folder directly on the C drive, or a
folder on a secondary drive. If you encounter a run-time error
75, it means that the current account does not have the proper
permissions to save a capture log in the specified directory.
Password Protection: When selected, the program will
require a password whenever it is made visible. If you start the
program in normal (non-stealth) mode, or press Ctrl + Shift + F5
to bring the program out of stealth mode, you will need to enter
your password to make the program visible.
Encryption: When selected, the contents of your log files
will be encrypted so that they cannot be opened by text editors
like Notepad, WordPad, or Micsoft Word.
Start in Stealth Mode: When selected, the program will
open in Stealth Mode and not display it's Graphical User
Interface (GUI) until you press Ctrl + Shift + F5.
Run at Startup: When selected, the program will run
automatically each time you start your computer. This setting
will be applied system-wide and will run on all user accounts
unless you select “This user account only”. All settings
for the program are stored in the system-wide registry account.
This means that if you change users your settings, such as
starting in stealth mode and requiring a password, will be
applied no matter which user account is currently running the
program.
Auto-Capture at Start: When selected, the program will
automatically create a new capture project and begin capturing
as soon as it is opened. The project folder will be named using
the current date and time.
Start a new log file every X lines
It is useful to limit the size of each log file, especially
on computers with less than 256 MB of RAM. The default value is
5,000 lines per log file. Each time a new log file is created
its file name will be incremented by one, for example,
caplog001.log, caplog002.log, etc…
Email each log before a new one is started
If you want to ensure that all log files are emailed to you,
enable this setting. Otherwise you may not receive entire log
files if they reach their max size before being emailed to you.
Viewing and replaying and deleting captures
Opening an existing project
All of your capture projects are saved in the /Projects/
folder directly beneath the folder you installed this software
in. If you want to open an old capture project, click the “Open
Log” button on the left hand side of the screen.
Navigate to the specific folder for the project you wish to
open. You should see a file called caplog.log. Select the file
and click the Open button.
Your capture will then be loaded into the program. Its
progress will be displayed in the status bar at the bottom of
the screen, and you will be notified when it has finished
loading.
You can now look through all of the capture information as if
it had just been captured.
Viewing a project in Playback mode
Each project can be played back in near real time, allowing
you to see keystrokes, screenshots and websites exactly as they
were originally entered/viewed.
First, open the capture log of the project you wish to view.
Then click the “Playback” button on the left hand side of the
screen.
Click the Play button to begin playback of the log.
Any keys viewed will be entered just as they were originally
typed.
Any websites viewed will display automatically in the
built-in browser. You must be connected to the internet to view
websites.
Any screenshots taken will be thumbnailed in the screenshot
window. You can click this thumbnail to enlarge it to
full-screen. When you are finished looking at the screenshot,
click anywhere on the screen to exit full-screen mode and return
the image to it's thumbnailed size.
You can click the fast forward button to make the playback
speed 3 times faster. Click it again to return to normal speed.
If you notice a long period of inactivity, click the “Skip to
next event” button to fast forward through empty spaces in the
log file.
Deleting Captures
If you would like to delete all the captured information for
a particular log, open the log and then click “Actions - > Clear
Log” in the menu at the top of the screen. This well delete all
information stored in the log.
In some cases a file may be protected by your operating
system, or in use at the time, and the software will not be able
to delete it. You can manually delete logs, and the screenshots
and web pages associated with them, by browsing to the
“Projects” folder using windows explorer. The project folder is
located in the same folder you have installed the software.
If you attempt to delete a project folder and receive the
message “Could not delete [folder]” it may be because files in
the folder are currently in use. Closing programs or restarting
your computer should resolve this.
How to hide this program from prying eyes
In addition to enabling Stealth Mode, you may wish to take extra
precautions to prevent this program from being found. We recommend
the following:
·
Remove the Desktop and Start Menu
shortcuts. Instructions are available by clicking the
“About” menu.
·
Change the location of the
software to something other than the default location. If
you would like to change the installation directory for this
software, you must first uninstall it by clicking :
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
Select the program name in the list and remove it. Then reinstall
and choose a different
directory when prompted.
All of your settings will remain saved, with the exception of
your Scheduled Tasks, which
must be reentered after a fresh install.
·
Hide the folder that you installed
the software in. This can be done by opening Windows
Explorer, right clicking the folder you wish to hide, clicking
“properties”, and checking the box labeled “Hidden”.
In order to view the folder again, you will need to enable
viewing of Hidden files in
windows explorere. To do this, open Windows Explorer and
click:
Tools > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files and folders
You can toggle this by clicking “Do not show hidden files and
folders”
Troubleshooting and Support
If you encounter a run-time error 75 it means that the current
account does not have write permission in the folder that you
specified to save capture in. Change the capture directory in the
options windows to resolve the problem. Try creating a folder
directly on the C drive and saving captures there.
If you run into any problems while using this software, please
feel free to contact our support department. Our most current
contact information is available on our website. You can visit our
website at any time by clicking the website button at the top right
hand corner of the program window.
