Filed under: Software, Productivity, Odds and ends
Backtrack: log everything you type
A while ago we posted on using a keylogger to recover text after a program crash. While that sort of works, it's a very inelegant solution, as the keylogger records, unsurprisingly, each and every keystroke including backspaces and deletes, etc. so getting the text back out often requires quite a bit of editing work. Well I recently discovered BackTrack, a logging program that does something similar but in a much more intelligent, that is, Mac-like way. It monitors your typing and records all of it (except passwords) in a database organized by the title of the window you're typing in. Unlike a pure keylogger, though, it records the typed text, including self-corrections, rather than just the individual keystrokes. So if an application you've been typing in (e.g. Word or a browser) crashes ,your text (but no formatting) is recoverable from the BackTrack interface.
I don't generally purchase software after just one use, but I've been looking for something like this for ages and plunked down my own hard earned money after using it for only a few minutes. I now consider this an essential part of my Mac experience. The only downside I can see is that you have to manually purge the database periodically (I don't see why this couldn't be automated to only keep the last 30 days, etc.). This, however, is a quibble as it's very easy to purge from within the preferences. Also, of course keep in mind that although it generally doesn't save passwords, there may be security considerations and you'll want to keep potential snoops away from your computer.
Backtrack is $15 and a demo is available, but if you act quickly it is on sale (until midnight tonight) for only $9.95 at MacUpdate. Highly recommended!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonathan Baldwin said 2:19PM on 4-12-2007
"The only downside I can see is that you have to manually purge the database periodically (I don't see why this couldn't be automated to only keep the last 30 days, etc.)"
Either they just updated it in the last few minutes or it's there in the preferences... Or am I missing something?
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trever said 2:28PM on 4-12-2007
Doesn't this work by shimming itself into the OS as an input manager, the likes of which are supposedly deprecated in Leopard? You might be paying $$ for something that won't work on the next release. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Mat Lu said 3:56PM on 4-12-2007
@1: a purge command is in the Prefs, but you still have to do the purging manually (you can set it to automatically purge at startup, that I think that's a bad idea, as then you'd loose things after a system crash).
@2: It apparently uses the Universal Access Assistive Devices hook, so I think it does not depend on an Input Manager (but I'm not entirely sure).
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TylerV said 10:47AM on 4-13-2007
Well, guys, if you are not satisfied with this keylogger you are welcome to visit http://keylogger.org/ site. It contains all the information about keyloggers. I purchased keyloggers from there few times.
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