Main Panel

Welcome to the AppTrak Manual. Click on numbered labels to go to corresponding explanation of feature(s). Mouse-over Helpfile menu at left and click on 'Overview' for additional information about AppTrak.

Please Note: Parts of AppTrak rely on information supplied by Windows Management Instrumentation. Because of this, it is a pre-requisite that the target workstation have the necessary WMI dlls installed. 

AppTrak Installation and Use Summary

WMI is already installed in Windows 2000, and is available as a redistributable package for Windows NT4. If the c:\winnt\system32\wbem folder exists on the target workstation, then AppTrak should work fine. Otherwise, the WMICore files can be downloaded from here. Install WMI by running wmisdcorek.exe. This will create the directory for WMI under the system folder and load the required files.

The values of these parameters dynamically change as user engages with applications on the desktop. AppTrak utilizes these parameters to determine what application a user is in, and whether the application is in fact being used:
CPU Used: % change in CPU utilization by the Process running the Foreground Window, since previous poll.
EXE Name: Name of the Process running the Foreground Window.
Window Text: Caption of Foreground Window.
Mouse/Key: Has user operated mouse or clicked keyboard key since previous poll? True='Yes', False='No'. 
Log Use: Based on ‘CPU Used’ and ‘Mouse/Key’ result, has there been use (of the application to which the Foreground Window belongs), by user since previous poll? True = 'Yes', False = 'No'. ('Log Use' = True is indicated if 'CPU Used' > 0% AND 'Mouse/Key' = True. Otherwise, False is indicated). If 'Log Use' = True, the EXE Name is logged to the DB, except if EXE Name is 'IExplore.Exe' (ie Internet Explorer Browser), in which case Window Text is logged to the DB.

Indicator of whether monitoring is occurring, or is stopped.

Set monitoring Start Time, using vertical sliders for setting Hour, Minute, Second, and AM or PM.

Set monitoring Duration, using vertical sliders for setting Hours, Minutes, Seconds. If the application is run in unregistered mode, only a duration of Minutes and Seconds can be set (Hours = 0). When the application is Registered, a maximum value of 10 can be set for Hours.

Tick this checkbox to start monitoring at the set monitoring Start Time. If this checkbox remains ticked, monitoring will automatically begin at the set monitoring Start Time every day, for the set monitoring Duration.

Tick this checkbox to enable automated emailing of AppTrak Reports at end of each monitoring period. (Note: both user's email address and To address must be filled out for emailing to work).

Enter user's email address, for emailing of AppTrak Reports at end of each monitoring period.

Enter To email address, for emailing of AppTrak Reports at end of each monitoring period. This address is the destination to which the Reports will be sent. The Reports will appear as attachments to the email, and the Subject of the email will be 'AppTrak Logs for X' where X = name or number of the workstation.

Click to shut down AppTrak.

In this screenshot of the System Tray, the AppTrak icon is at far right, adjacent to the time display.
Click to minimize AppTrak Main Panel to System Tray. All monitoring and logging capabilities of AppTrak continue when the application is thus minimized. Double-click AppTrak icon to maximize again.

Press the Register button to display the AppTrak Registration panel. Follow the instructions displayed in the panel to Register, which removes the (59 minutes and 59 seconds total) monitoring Duration restriction. 

Extract and downloaded the AppTrak zip file to a directory, run the ‘Install’ file and follow the prompts to install. Then, launch the application. 

When you do so for the first time, it puts a short-cut in the Start Up folder, so that AppTrak starts up when Windows starts up. 

 Maximize the application from the System Tray, set Monitoring Start Time and Duration, and tick the ‘Enable Monitoring’ checkbox. Tick the ‘Enable Emailing Of Logs’ checkbox, enter your email address in ‘From Email Address’ textbox and destination email address in ‘To Email Address’ textbox, if it is desired to automatically have the AppTrak Reports sent to the destination email address for collation and review, at the end of each monitoring period.

When monitoring begins, try opening and closing, clicking in, and moving around, various applications on your desktop and see the effect in the ‘Application Use Display’. Minimize AppTrak to System Tray once set – it can start, continue and stop monitoring discreetly from there. 

AppTrak polls every second for logging application use, and once every 5 seconds for logging opening and closing of applications, and starting and stopping of processes.

AppTrak keeps track of its own monitoring status – if for example there is a system-wide crash during the monitoring period, then when AppTrak is started again, it checks whether ‘Enable Monitoring’ is ticked and whether the current time falls within the monitoring period. If so, AppTrak immediately continues monitoring and logging to the DB where it left off, without refreshing the DB. The DB is refreshed only at the end of the monitoring period. 

AppTrak Reports are in the form of three log files. They are:
-AppTrakUseLog.txt (Most used application in each 10 minute time slot over the monitoring period, Relative Cumulative Use Duration of each application used, Use Profile of each application in 10-minute slots over the monitoring period)
-AppTrakOpenAppsLog.txt (applications installed, applications launched at startup, Services running, applications open, opening and closing of applications)
-AppTrakOpenAppsProcessesLog.txt (opening and closing of processes)

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Copyright © 2003 Measurement and Conversion Software
Last modified: May 09, 2005