Spysure

We tend to think of spyware as invasive – a type of software that’s foisted on us by people who want to access our personal information, whether to help them target adverts or, more nefariously, to get passwords and credit card details. But spyware can also be a useful tool. It can, for instance, tell you what other people are up to on your PC and guard the safety and security of your children.

Features:
Spysure is a good and comprehensive suite, although there are other programs around that do much of what it does. It can capture screenshots of computer activity at regular intervals, monitor internet activity (capturing details of every page visited), display lists of programs used, record instant-messaging conversations and even log every key press made.

Performance:
You need to have administrator access on the PC you want to install Spysure on. You may want to restrict your users to certain types of software because, although the software can be set to log every key press, recording things like instant messages works best if only supported software like Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messnger is used. It’s up to you whether you let other people using your PC know that you’re watching them or not – the threat alone may be enough to prevent any untoward actions.

Ease of use:
This is sophisticated software but the interface, while relatively straightforward, isn’t particularly dynamic. There’s no barrier to its use, but all it’s basically doing is dressing up log files. There’s no way for the software to pull out suspicious activity for you so, to spy on someone, you’ll have to devote a lot of time to sifting through numerous pages of text.

Value for money:
The software isn’t cheap but it’s hard to put a price on peace of mind. If you hunted around hard enough you might find cheaper software that does some of what Spysure does, but this way you’ve got a convenient suite of tools and access to support.