Activity Monitor User Reviews
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"not bad $$"
Version: Activity Monitor 5.7
Pros
it help me alot but who is goona pay 189.95$ for thid
Cons
but trial is very short
Summary
none
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"!!!!VIRUS!!!!"
Version: Activity Monitor 5.3
Pros
There are absolutely no pros to this program. Installing it is suicide for you computer.
Cons
Panda Cloud Anti Virus detected a Trojan in this file. I rescanned using AVG and Norton and they both indicated malicious code, beware.
Summary
Worthless.
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"Useful software"
Version: Activity Monitor 4.41 build 2252
Pros
easy to use and understandable
Cons
no cons ...perfect
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"Great monitoring software - I like it very much"
Version: Activity Monitor 4.4 build 2247
Pros
We use it to monitor our workstations and have all the information we need
Cons
We have no problem with Activity Monitor
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"Don't waste your time"
Version: Activity Monitor 4.4
Pros
The program ran fairly well, had multiple issues with Antivirus.
Cons
NO SUPPORT!!!!!! I had an issue with one of my users that was able to keep turning off the program. They don't offer phone support at all. I've sent about a dozen emails requesting support, but I haven't gotten a single response.
Summary
NO SUPPORT AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They take the money and run. They don't offer phone support EVER! They have failed to responed to even one of the dozen emails I've sent over the last couple of weeks.
Obviously, they just took the money and laughed all the way to the bank.
Don't be a fool, look elsewhere. -
"Review on trial version"
Version: Activity Monitor 4.2
Pros
Hidden from Add/Remove program
You can in current version 4.2 exclude users from monitoring
Easy to use and logviewer works fine.
Let you specified what you want to monitor (such as keystroke, web visited and chat etc)
Price is fair somewhat.
Installer has a feature to install log viewer only without installing spy softwares to view received logs through mail, and that could mean encrypt feature has been added in this version.
Uninstaller feature included in main menu.
Cons
* No stealth mode in trial version, they claim its available in full version.
* I doubt it can be so stealthy due to name of program path that include "Logger" word which can be reconigzed from msconfig tool or any startup manager software, also it stored in program files and that make it easy to detect by intilegence by users.
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"The features it has are great, but the features it lacks are glaring"
Version: Activity Monitor 4
Pros
The interface is quite nice. Except for the new "SoftActivity Log Viewer", which has a skin that cannot be disabled. I despise skins to the utmost. The whole log viewer application has a look and feel that is very much out of place on Windows XP.
The new features that log chat conversations and email are nice. Activity Monitor uses a driver for this functionality (version 3.x did not use a driver at all). I tested with Miranda IM using the ICQ protocol, and it worked as advertised.
Unlike some competitors (i.e. Desktop Scout), Activity Monitor can log web sites viewed in Firefox. This is good. Why any monitoring software would work ONLY with Internet Explorer these days is beyond me (and inexcusable).
Cons
The biggest shortcoming of all, from my point of view: Logs and screen shots are STILL not encrypted; they are stored on the computer(s) being monitored in plaintext, just waiting to be discovered, reviewed, or edited.
This version STILL does not allow you to exclude specific users from monitoring. You can either monitor all users on a system, or none of them.
The Activity Monitor agent (it's the server, though for some reason, they insist on incorrectly referring to it as the "client") still does not run as a service.
The screen-viewing feature has no remote-control capability. Unlike several competitors (Net Spy Pro, NetVizor, Desktop Scout, etc.), it is view-only.
Screen viewing is restricted to, at most, a refresh rate of once every three seconds. Compare this to Desktop Scout (and some others) that display the screen in a smooth, real-time sort of way.
If you have the Activity Monitor viewer configured to download logs periodically, it causes an annoying window to flash on the screen repeatedly each time this occurs--something I tend to find very annoying. This happens even when the viewer is minimized to the tray.
The SoftActivity Log Viewer provides no way to view captured screen shots. You still need to rely on an external viewer for those.
The price for Activity Monitor 3.x was $90. At the time, I thought the price was excessive. But now, I am quite shocked to see that the price has DOUBLED to $180! This means that after the one-year period of updates expires, previous users (who get a 50% discount) will have to pay as much for the new version upgrade as they did to begin with!
Given how much competition there is in this category, there is absolutely NO WAY I would ever recommend for someone--ANYONE--to pay $180 for Activity Monitor. It's a nice application, but it has serious, persistent shortcomings that defy its sky-high price.
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"Very good, with a fatal flaw"
Version: Activity Monitor 3.92
Pros
It works well, when others don't
Cons
The biggest flaw is that the logs are not encrypted. I use Activity Monitor because none of the others I tried worked well enough. But I am constantly nervous that the plaintext logs and images will be discovered--which would be ruinous.
Also, sometimes Activity Monitor fails to delete logs on the remote system when I use the "Get Scheduled from all" function". This means the same logs and images are downloaded over and over again; this is extremely irritating.
You cannot exclude users from monitoring. This means that if you use the computer with the agent installed, your activity will be monitored as well. Even if you use Remote Desktop from such a system, the remote desktop screens will be logged to the local system. And they could be discovered, because they were too lazy to add encryption.
I wish they would get around to releasing an update that addresses these critical issues.
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"Excellent. The best I've found."
Version: Activity Monitor 3.92
Pros
Excellent, polished, professional interface. Very easy to use. Want to view keystrokes in real time? It's right there. Want to view internet history? It's on another tab, plainly marked. Issue remote commands? Easy to find.
It's amazing how convoluted, confusing, and utterly terrible the interfaces and architecture of some of the software in this genre are. Activity Monitor is a world apart in that regard. It's easy to install, and easy to use.
Cons
With e-Surveiller at $35, I am having a hard time paying $55 more for Activity Monitor--even though I like it much more.
Some remote commands I'd find useful are missing, but can be found in competitors such as Net Spy Pro: Lock Workstation, Hibernate, and so on. Sometimes, you can achieve the desired result by using the "Run" feature, but that's not very convenient. (I've submitted a feature suggestion to the developers, so we'll see what, if anything, comes of this.)
Oh, another "con"--seeing the product rated poorly just because of inapplicable nutball reviews.
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"Good software but Russian origins make suspect"
Version: Activity Monitor 3.92
Pros
Good program.
Cons
Main stumbling block with software is it's Russian origins. Given major institutional support there for hacking of US corporate and governmental entities, one should not install this software without understanding that 3rd parties may also be spying with you.
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