The program is offered as a limited free version and commercial versions. ManicTime Free comes without program support and advanced features like password protection, categorization of applications or advanced search functionality.

The free version of the time tracking software tracks and analyzes application usage automatically, and creates charts and statistics about the general computer usage.

When you start the program for the first time, you will see a tabbed interface that is divided into two main areas. The area at the top of the program window displays the current day and a time bar that visualizes computer, application and document usage on the computer. Different programs and documents are displayed with different color sets. Hovering the mouse over them displays tooltip information about the program, time and duration as well as document titles and related information.

The lower half of the screen displays the active application or document (e.g. browser tab) and totals combined (e.g. how long you spend in the Firefox browser).

The statistics tab displays various information like the top applications and documents, top computer usage or day durations.

You can pause tracking at any time with a right-click on the program’s system tray icon and the selection of “Go off the record”.

The information that ManicTime present can be a real eye opener for some users. Maybe you realize that you spend to much time gaming on Facebook or your favorite Flash games site, or watching movies on the computer.

I personally like the fact that the program keeps not only track of programs but also window titles, so that you can for instance see how much time you spend on specific websites in your web browser.

ManicTime is a handy time tracking software for the Windows operating system. Windows users can download all available versions of the software from the developer website. The program is fully compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

Programs like TimeSheet are designed for users who spend most of their work day on the computer. TimeSheet records the activities on the computer automatically with an option to add activities manually as well.

All activities are recorded into the default project which is created on first startup. One of the advantages of TimeSheet is the ability to create and assign projects and tasks to application windows and titles which are automatically recognized once they have been configured.

time tracking software

The ability to recognize application titles allows the creation of specific rule sets. This option allows it for instance to assign specific Excel spreadsheets to different projects. This principle applies to all programs that display different titles.

A project can consist of multiple tasks which can be defined in the rules. Tasks define specific activities of a project. A basic example would be project A with the two tasks phone calls when a Skype call is made and web development when Photoshop is the active window.

timesheet

Rules can be modified at anytime in the application’s settings. The reporting can be configured to display activities of a specific time frame or a weekly overview.

An export option is available to export reports into Excel. TimeSheet displays a system tray notification whenever the active program window changes. The notification displays the active program name and project / task it is recorded in. Users who do not need that option can turn if off in the program’s settings.

Time spend on projects or tasks can be added manually as well. This way non-computer related activities or activities on other computer systems can be added to the time tracking app.

The program runs in a learning mode by default which will recognize new program windows automatically. The option to create rules for new applications is provided directly in that mode.

TimeSheet is an automatic time tracking software with an interesting feature set. The developer could improve on the export, import and syncing features though.

The rest of the program leaves little to desire. TimeSheet can be downloaded from the developer’s website. The software is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

If you want to find out how many hours you spend on your computer in the last three weeks you might want to download and run the portable time tracking software PC On / Off Time. The application can be run from any location and displays the logged in time of a user on the system. While logged in time does not necessarily mean that the user was working it can lead to a solid understanding of a user’s work schedule, especially if the computer in question is located in an office building. It can be used for monitoring usage albeit on a basic level.

Once started the time tracking software displays the usage of the first username of the system. A pulldown menu at the top makes it possible to easily switch to another user that is known on the system.

The tracking hours application presents the hours of a day on the x-axis and the date on the y-axis. The help button in the interface explains how the program is tracking the hours. It is doing so by analyzing the Windows protocol. The application is compatible with all Windows NT based operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003.

In case you are wondering about my schedule: I changed the timezone of my computer on August 23. Can anyone beat my score? I know some of you guys have your computer turned on 24/7 which would make such a time tracking software rather useless.