PC Black Box

This monitoring tool remains well-hidden and accurately captures user activity for later playback. PC Black Box's gray button and small display window interface may remind some users of easy-to-use Mac apps. It's easy to understand and easier to use, but still flexible enough for advanced users. Many programs in this genre offer simple instructions that turn out to be complex, but PC Black Box offers one of the better quick start guides. Most users will have this app properly installed and in stealth mode in just a few minutes.

PC Black Box doesn't capture any esoteric information. It saves the standard keys pressed, programs used, Web sites visited, and screenshots at selected intervals. We found the screenshots larger than with similar apps. Users with not enough hard-drive space may choose not to save the images. Many system activity monitors suffer because they're too easy to find. PC Black Box has numerous easily set options to run silently. Log files are proprietary and can't be read if accidentally found. An internal e-mail engine sends the capture log at selected intervals, but needs the user's email account password and username. The scheduler also includes simple options to start and stop capture.

Auto-Capture at Start, Log File Size Monitor, and similar small options make PC Black Box one of the more easy-to-use system activity monitors. The demo contains all features, but limits capture to 20 minutes per use. Any user with a need for a stealth activity monitoring tool should give this one a try.