In the process of using your computer, you may need to find out which programs are launched, as well as track the user's actions in your absence. There can be many reasons for this - the desire to know what your child is doing, the production need to control the actions of workers.
Necessary
Windows computer
Instructions
Step 1
One of the ways that does not require any additional configuration is to use information from the Prefetch file located in the Windows system folder. Open the Windows folder in any file manager, which is most often located on the C drive. Find and open the Prefetch folder. This folder contains files with the *.pf extension. The file is created by the operating system at the time of the last launch of any application. When you restart the program, the old file is overwritten and a new one is created. The file name contains the name of the executable file of the running program. In order to see the start time of the program, click on the "View" icon on the toolbar and select the "Table" value.
Step 2
But keep in mind that you can only find out about the last launch of the application. For more information, you need to configure the Local Security Settings. Click the "Start" button, select "Control Panel - Administrative Tools", and then double-click on the "Local Security Policy" icon.
Step 3
To change the "Audit Policy" element, click the "Local Policies" node in the console tree. Go to the item "Audit Policy. In the details pane on the right side of the window, select the Process Tracking Audit entry. This security setting determines whether successful or unsuccessful application launch attempts are tracked and logged. By default, its value is "No audit". Double click on this entry.
Step 4
In the Properties dialog box that opens, set the radio button to Success on the Local Security Option tab. Confirm the changes by clicking on the OK button.
Step 5
Now, by selecting "My Computer - Management - Event Viewer" from the context menu, and opening the "Security" log located in the right part of the window, you can control all the information on the launch of processes on your computer.
