Patent ID: 6978303

Claim:
A utility for monitoring usage of a computer by: monitoring in real time for expiration of a current frame period, and: if the current frame period has expired, writing out current activity to a log database and creating a new entry, if not expired, checking if an active window title text is the same as that of a stored window title text and, if not, writing out the stored entry and creating a new entry; in which a new entry is created by: checking if the name of an active window is in a stored window list, and if so, reading an application name for the window, if the name of the active window is not in the stored window list, scanning through all executing processes and detecting those processes created by files having an executable-indicating extension and scanning through said processes for a process identifier matching that of the active window process; and in which the utility comprises: a main program and a first protection program each of said programs having a protection mutex and a thread, each thread repeatedly checking the protection mutex of the other program, and if the mutex of the main program is absent the first protection program re-starts the main program, and if the mutex of the first protection program is absent the main program re-starts the first protection program; and in which the utility stores a standard user activity profile and automatically executes an alert event according to comparison of user activity with a profile; and in which the utility automatically determines a productivity classification for each used application.