- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (14-day trial); $19.95 to buy
- Operating system: Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 98
- Date added: March 05, 2006
- Total Downloads: 16,813
- Downloads last week: 7
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- Average user rating: stars out of 7 votes
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Publisher's description
From SCES :The PC Detective is a spy utility that monitors your PC or multiple PCs over a LAN logging all activity including Web sites visited, applications run, all keystrokes, chat conversations, instant messages, and regular screen captures all in complete stealth, so users will not be aware of its presence, enabling you to keep track on what your kids, spouse, or employees are up to on your PCs. It is designed to be used either on a standalone machine or over a LAN where all activity is logged for viewing at a later date and can also be viewed over a network in real time. It also includes a pop-up blocker, Web site blocker, and application blocker and has the ability to run applications remotely over a LAN, and to send instant messages to a user over a network. All data can be e-mailed at regular intervals or at predefined times without the users knowledge.
Version 2.8.107 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 3 of 3 user reviewsSee all 3 user reviews
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1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Version: The PC Detective Pro 2.8.107
"Well, I guess it's cost effective"
Pros: The price! According to the author's web site, the regular price for this software is $30 (sorry, I don't like stupid games, so I refer to "$29.95" as simply "$30"). But as I write this, the "sale" price is $20.
Because of this, I really, really wanted to like The PC Detective Pro. I've been trying a slew of software titles in this category, and have only found one that I really like--and it is $90.
The PC Detective Pro has a decent feature set. Not the best, but at least as good as some that cost two or three times as much.
I very nearly gave The PC Detective Pro a rating of 3. But the network and "real time" claims, combined with the clunky interface, pushed me back to a 2.
Please note that I do not allow price to figure into my rating. (It's not my place to guess what you can or are willing to pay.)
Cons: I found the interface clunky and confusing. Too many windows, drop-down lists, and menus. (The menu arrangement makes no sense--why use the View menu to add/remove a computer to monitor? Why not the Users menu? Is it intuitive to go to the Users menu to Exit?) It took me quite awhile before (accidentally!) discovering that the "toolbar" is embedded in a pane that auto-hides on the left side of the window. I could probably get used to it. But I don't like having to get used to things I dislike.
I could find no way to delete logs, without deleting the entire record of the computer being monitored.
The software does a good job concealing itself. I recognize the need for stealth, but would have appreciated it if the software made it easier for me to tell where data was being saved!
The main thing I disliked was how they managed to "network enable" The PC Detective Pro. To set up a computer to be monitored, you have to SHARE ITS ENTIRE C: DRIVE OVER THE NETWORK! To get the logs and other data, The PC Detective Pro reads them from a mapped drive. This is not of a client/server architecture; they took the easy way out. They imply that this software is network enabled, but that is misleading. It's not network enabled, Windows is, and this software merely reads files from paths provided by Windows.
They claim that you can "View other desktop screens in real time over a network". Also misleading. The viewer reads an image file from a shared network drive as frequently as every 30 seconds. Is seeing two frames per minute "real time" to you? Me neither.
You can run applications remotely, but command line parameters are disallowed. Because there are no remote management features such as locking the workstation or logging a user off, you can't do those things at all.
Rather than packaging the "logger" and the "viewer" separately, so you can install only the viewer on the machine you wish to use to monitor other computers, they force you to install everything, and then uninstall the "logger".
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Version: The PC Detective Pro 2.8.107
"Nightmare to uninstall. Try another program first!"
Pros: Cannot name anything good about it, because it failed to install correctly.
Cons: The worse bit is, the program cannot be uninstalled without disabling the two main components first.
So you are basically stuck with it on the system.
If deleted from "Control Panel" it regenerates itself on next login.
After much trial and error, discovered that the program hides itself as SVCHOST.exe.
Deleting that file with "Hijack this" or other spyware program, will remove it once and for all.
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Version: The PC Detective Pro 2.8.107
Pros: rhjj,k;jkgukd
Cons: jkjkfjdifjj;lfieoir
Summary: fhfjh,lliuoyuns
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