Auto Screenshot is a portable software program that falls into the parental control software category. It can be used to monitor users on a computer system. More precisely: It can be used to take interval screenshots of a user’s desktop whenever the user accesses the computer system.

The tri-lingual software program offers a few options to configure the process. The user – which in this case should be one of the parents or guardians – can configure the delay between screenshots in seconds and the number of screenshots that should be kept on the computer system. It is furthermore possible to set the download directory, delete duplicate screenshots and to compress images to save space on the hard drive.

The process of the parental control software is visible in the task manager. This means the software can only be effective on user accounts without administrative rights. Auto Screenshot (via To The PC) is available at the developer’s website.

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Each entry consists of a url that will be monitored, a descriptive title and the choice of monitoring a website for any changes or for specific keyword appearances. Some sources that can be monitored can only be monitored by keywords. If keywords are selected it is possible to set the free website monitor to monitor the website for single keyword appearances or only if all keywords are found. The frequency can be set to seconds, minutes, hours or days with the default being 15 minutes.

The monitoring software will display alerts if changes are detected on any of the selected websites. Alerts can either be sounds, popups or both simultaneously. It will also add all alerts to the list of alerts which comes in handy if changes have been found during absence.

Websites are opened directly in a popup window with the keywords or changed parts highlighted for easier discovery.

The website monitor will run on most Microsoft operating systems. It ran fine on a Windows XP Service Pack 3 test system.

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One of the main advantages of Maxto is its multi-monitor support. After executing Maxto for the first time each of the computer monitors currently connected to the computer system become preyed out. This is the configuration phase of the application. The user can then divide each computer monitor screen horizontally or vertically numerous times until the desired partitioning has been defined. Each are can be manually adjusted by moving the dividing bars around. The actual computer monitor shines through which makes it easy for users who want to adjust the settings according to current window placements.

It is furthermore possible to load a monitor profile instead of configuring the areas of the computer monitor manually. Profiles exist that divide the computer monitor vertically or horizontally. The new areas become active once the preparations are done. Another option is to configure an alternate setup for the computer system which can be switched to easily. Perfect if you run two different kind of application sets that have different space requirements.

Keyboard shortcuts are available to move the windows into adjacent areas quickly, to maximize windows full screen or to enable the alternative layout.

The drawback of the application is its resource usage. While the application itself ships with a size of less than 200 Kilobytes it uses more than 30 Megabytes – and the same amount of virtual memory – while running on a computer system with one connected computer monitor. It should also be noted that Maxto requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or higher.

An alternative is Winsplit Revolution which is more resource friendly or Acer Vista Grid which despite the name works on both XP and Vista.

Maxto, via Lifehacker.

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The software Application Monitor can come in handy for users who run servers of any kind on their computer or who like to download files when they are sleeping or not near the computer. Nothing’s worse than to wake up to realize that the application that controlled the download crashed ten minutes after going to bed.

Application Monitor (via Madhur Kapoor) will monitor applications added by the user in intervals. If the software program notices that an application is not started anymore – because of a crash, program termination or other reasons – it will restart it automatically.

All that needs to be done to monitor a new application is to enter a name and point the Application Monitor to the application’s path. It is possible to add arguments that will be executed when the program starts and to change the interval from 2 minutes to a different one.

The system administrator can be notified by email regularly and all events will be logged on the system’s hard drive by default.

Application Monitor is a portable software that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 1.1 to run.

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Multi-Monitor Taskbar by Mediachance (via Shellcity) ends that by adding a unique taskbar to every computer monitor that gets connected to the computer system. Each taskbar is only displaying the folders and applications that are started in its boundaries which makes the file and folder management that much easier.

The free version of Multi-Monitor Taskbar comes with a few additional handy features like a move to monitor button in Windows XP. It is however limited in comparison to the commercial pro version which adds features like theme support or the ability to resize windows across multiple monitors.

The main function however is available in the free version and that’s probably all that most dual-monitor users need. The pro version comes as a Shareware trial which can be used to test the additional features to see if it’s worth the money.

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Application Monitor is a portable application that can monitor software programs in intervals. If a monitored application stopped running Application Monitor will start it anew. The setup does not provide any difficulties even for inexperienced users.

It basically comes down to selecting applications from the computer, adding a descriptive name, selecting the interval for the checks and optional parameters for the application start. Every added application is listed in the main program interface and has to be checked before the monitoring process starts.

Several options are available that can change some of the default parameters of the software. The default interval for application checks is set to 2 minutes which can be changed individually when a new application is added to the software program or in the options.

Application Monitor can be configured to check if the added applications are started during software startup. There is also an option to send error reports to an email address that can be configured in the software options.

The downside of using the application monitoring program is the rather high, and unusual, memory consumption.

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Adding an entry to the system startup items without asking the user for permission or adding a system icon to the list of devices is another. Monitoring those Registry and file changes can be helpful in analysing why something happened and where it’s source is located.

What Changed is a portable system application that can take system snapshots and compare those system snapshots with a system state at a later time. This can be highly useful during software installation. A system snapshot would be created before the installation and that snapshot could be compared to the state of the system after the installation.

The computer’s file system and the parts of the Registry that should be scanned for the system snapshot can be selected in the program interface. Taking the Registry and system snapshot takes a while depending on the size of the hard drive and the amount of files stored on it.

The same main interface contains the Compare button which compares a previously saved system snapshot with the current state. The program basically scans the system a second time and compares the first and second snapshot to discover differences.

The changes are saved in a snapshot file in the same directory as the application. It’s a simply text file that points to Registry keys and files that have been changed or added.

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