How to keep track of the time which I am actively logged into my PC

Is their a way to daily keep track of the time which I am logged into my computer and actively working?

Look at your watch!

Sorry... couldn't resist :)

On a serious note, would something like this help you out?

https://www.rescuetime.com/

The "Lite" version is free to use. Or were you after a much simpler and basic solution?

Regards, Andrew

brgdotnet,

This might not be what you are looking for, but you could possibly set up an Auto Hot Key to press a key(ie. Scroll Lock) which should keep the computer "active" and prevent from logging you off due to inactivity.

Here is the Basics documentation provided by AutoHotKey: https://autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm

Again, this might help you, unless you are specifically looking to use the logs.

Devin Becker

brgdotnet, reading over your question again, I may have misunderstood your intent. Is your need to track the time spent on your computer, or just to change how much idle time has elapsed before you're logged out?

If you're being logged out, what are you using to automatically log yourself out of the computer? That would have had to have been set up at some stage because the only default in Windows is to activate the screen saver and present the password prompt again. (Ie: Just a lock - no "Log Out")

To change the latter;

Press Windows Key and type "Lock Screen Settings"
Click the result

Check both "Screen timeout settings" and "Screen saver settings" options.

Thanks Andrew, rescue time looks really cool. However I am looking for something that is not a commercial product. Something home grown, like a command shell script or something like hat would be good. Or maybe something is built into Windows which will do this for me. I doubt it though. To answer your question, yes the goal is :

track the time spent on your computer,

Here you go brgdotnet,

See if the accepted solution (first after question) meets your needs - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/how-do-i-view-login-history-for-my-pc-using/a0172887-1071-47fb-b0a3-6ca9360efdbf

Ken

One other thought popped into my mind further to Devin Becker's suggestion about AutoHotKey. There is an expert here on Experts Exchange ( Joe Winograd ) who is an absolute Wiz with AHK. He's helped me out a ton with some of my own strange requests so I'll ping him for you to look at this question. I'm sure he'll chime in if he thinks he can help.

Regards, Andrew

Thanks everyone

Hi brgdotnet,
I see that you closed this question, but want to follow up on a couple of comments in the thread. First, re Devin's post, I think that his AutoHotkey suggestion is an excellent one. He provided you with a link to the AutoHotkey tutorial, and here's another link to an article that I published here at Experts Exchange that you may find helpful in getting you started on the language:

AutoHotkey - Getting Started

And here are some other of my EE articles with AutoHotkey code samples (full scripts, actually) that you may also find helpful:

How to copy the short link of an ID at Experts Exchange to the clipboard with a single keystroke

How to solve the problem of incorrect System Uptime being reported when a system has been up for a long time (approximately 50 days or more)

How to create an on/off toggle to mute the system audio/sound with a single mouse click or single keystroke

Re his idea to press a key to keep the computer active, I've written several of those AutoHotkey scripts already. In fact, one was for a Gig here at EE:

Standalone program to monitor Outlook for a pop-up, and take action to dismiss it.

Another was for a client to keep a remote Citrix session active. It looks for a dialog box with the title "Idle timer expired" and then sends the Enter key. This type of script is usually easy to write.

Second, re Andrew's post, I appreciate his kind words, but at this point in time, I take it that your issue is already solved. But if not, either post here or drop me a PM. Regards, Joe