Ghost Mouse

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on May 13, 2009

If you know how to use a CD player, you will be a master at using GhostMouse, a tiny program that lets you record and play back a series of mouse movements, including right clicks and drag-and-drop actions. You may, however, ask yourself when or where you could put your recorded clicks to work.

Using GhostMouse's compact, three-button interface, you can record a script to replay a set of actions. Unlike other programs designed to record and replicate user actions, this one is limited to mouse-related tasks. More robust programs will handle typed text and other keyboard actions. Still, the program worked as promised and even had a few settings and other features. You could, for example, call the GhostMouse app from the command line or upon startup and run a saved script. Using one of the two available user options, you could then choose to close GhostMouse after playback (the other setting governs playback speed). One potentially useful feature is the ability to click Play during a recording session, thereby enabling you to create an endless loop of your mouse clicks. To exit the loop, users just have to deliver a Pause command (Ctrl+Alt.), then exit the application.

The original purpose of GhostMouse is a mystery. One downloader describes using it to create a continuous click stream to convince a Web server that a real user is viewing the site. GhostMouse may also fill an esoteric need of remote system administrators. In any case, it seems that an application that records both mouse clicks and keyboard strokes would be more likely to satisfy whatever automation needs you have. If, however, you see a need for what GhostMouse offers, you won't have to pay a thing to use it.