Actual Spy Keylogs with The Best of Them
One of the better keyloggers out there.
By:
Alex Muradin, Editor, Software Reviews
 Invasion of Privacy has never been easier
Imagine this.
You’re an overprotective dad with a teenage daughter. She wants to go out at
night, but you think that it’s dangerous. The idea of sex drugs and rock and
roll doesn’t really appeal to you or anything that you want your daughter
dabbing in. Let’s cancel this idea of a daughter and just insert a kid. No
parent ever truly trusts their potentially “experimental, I’m tired of listening
to my parents, I want to go drinking till I can’t feel feelings anymore”
attitude of their kids. If they do, they’re only fooling themselves. If they
haven’t already figured out that the only way to really control them is by fake
telling them that you trust them completely and secretly spy behind their backs
on every move they make, then you’re a head of the game. I had a friend in high
school that had those kinds of parents… They said they trusted him… until his
mom secretly opened the trunk of his car and found a $500 stereo system he had
secretly installed along with three bottles of vodka… Oh, I almost forgot, she
also found his stash of playboy magazines. You think I’m making this stuff
up?
Well, if you’re an overly zealous parent who would do all these
things but don’t have the time, you might just want to look into
Actual Spy.
Actual Spy is a spy software. It is designed for the hidden computer monitoring
and the monitoring of the computer activity. Actual Spy is capable of catching
all keystrokes (key logger), capturing the screen within specified time
intervals, logging the programs being run and closed, monitoring the clipboard
contents, monitoring the printer, monitoring the file system, recording web
sites visited on the Internet, monitoring connections to the Internet,
monitoring startup/shutdown. All data is logged in the encrypted log file.
Actual Spy can create a report in the text as well as in the html format, and
send it on the specified email, via FTP and a local area network. It's
absolutely invisible in all operating systems.
Actual Spy can give you
all the information that’s currently being processed on your computer by its
users. After putting it through a rigorous test, I came to the conclusion that
this program is one of the more in depth keyloggers that you’re going to be
using. I was surprised by the amount of information it was capable of storing…
honestly.
 Inside
The tabbed interface supports a variety of
functions that are helpful in identifying exactly what goes on within the
computer. The tabs are separated into PC Activity, Internet Activity, Reports,
and Settings (there’s an about tab if you’re interested about the product).
The PC Activity tab is separated into seven sections; Keystrokes,
Screenshots, Applications, Clipboard, Printer, Files and Computer. The most
useful of these will be your Keystrokes, Screenshots and Applications tabs. The
keystrokes is the key to the whole program since this is its main function.
After recording activity, it gives you information on the time certain keys were
recorded, the Windows caption (what program was currently selected), the
application path (where to find it) and the user name. It performs quite the
feat of recording absolutely anything and everything (including several other
Web Browsers that some key loggers don’t support like Maxthon, Firefox and
Opera). If you’re wondering what sorts of things are recorded; anything from
chat services to emails are on the list. AIM, Yahoo Messenger… anything that
requires keystrokes will be recorded. Trust me.
If you get confused at
the technicalities of the log files, you can easily take a look at the
screenshots that you can also set to record (you can set the specified interval
as well). The advantage to this program is that it also lets you see what’s been
copied and pasted by recording the clipboard actions.
The Internet
Activity tab generally shows you the same information that PC Activity does
(as in windows caption, URL and username). This is where you can see the
detailed Web sites that were visited. Your Reports tab will give you the
option of choosing what sorts of reports you’d like to record (Keystrokes,
Screenshots, Files, Computer, Internet Connections, Applications, Clipboard,
Websites visited, or printer). You can set the reports in either HTML of text
format and assign when a report is due to be created.
The
last useful program tab is your Settings tab. Here’s where you’ll make
sure to see if your log file path is correct, you can even create a password
protect hiding option. I thought the cool thing about Actual Spy was that you’re
even given the option of encrypting your log files. I mean, that’s pretty
hardcore right there. You can set it to start up with your system and
automatically set it to autohide (you cannot see the application in your
Ctrl-Alt-Del Taskbar). Under the hiding option, you’re able to remove the
program’s shortcut from your Desktop and Start Menu… You can even remove it from
“Add Remove Programs” as well as hide the program folder… Again, this is pretty
intense.
Actual Spy is one of the more in depth keyloggers I’ve been
able to test thus far. Although it’s worth mentioning the trial version only
gives you a 40 minute trial, it’s well worth the purchase if you do in fact want
to spy on others using the same computer as you are.
The
Good
It’s an absolute lock as a
good keylogger. For parents and
stalkers alike, this program will definitely fulfill your computer user
inquiries. You’ll see what’s being types, by who it’s being types, what programs
they have opened while they’re typing and which Web sites are being accessed. It
not only tells you, but it also takes screenshots for you. Actual Spy is a
powerful, well hidden and super informative key logger. It’s definitely worth
the $59.95.
The Bad
The bad part is… I honestly can’t
think of much. Maybe giving me the option of re-sizing the window, I hate it
when I have to look at a scrunched up GUI. Although it’s still clear and
intuitive, the option of a resize would do wonders for some power users who want
to take a look at a lot of information at once (rather than scrolling through
everything).
The Truth
If the only gripe I had about
the program was that I couldn’t resize the window, then you know that it’s worth
it. Although the price is $59.95 for one user registration, it will be worth the
money for what it does. They also have process for other numbers of
registrations, so if you own a business, they have a special price for you if
you want to monitor your computer use by your workers. This is a small program
that runs on all versions of Windows from 95 through to XP. Definitely worth the
price for the power, the utility, the practicality and the penetrating
efficiency at prying.
Check out the pics below.
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