Free/cheap keylogger (for laptop)

agrinnall

Before everyone gets on their collective high horses to ask why I would even consider wanting such a thing I will explain.

For my Masters research I will be asking participants to perform searches for online medical resources. I need to record what they have typed in and anything they have selected (e.g. from drop down lists or tick boxes etc.) so that I can analyse their actions later. They will know before starting that the session will be recorded and will have to give consent.

So with that out of the way can anyone recommend something that is either free or inexpensive that - importantly - can be used on a laptop (which as far as I can tell rules out hardware devices)? I did look at this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2966940 but it wasn't terribly helpful. I'm on Win 7 and generally use Firefox (currently 3.6.15) although I'd be prepared to use IE 8 if that makes life easier.

MoneySavingUser

A keylogger probably isn't the best way

better to use a screen recorder like camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/

somersethillbilly

You could try this one...Google "KGB Key Logger" and download free trial from CNET.

Hope that helps?

fwor

If I were looking to do this I would aim for something Open Source, as you are very unlikely to get something that's masquerading as a keylogger but also doing other things that you don't want (e.g. sending the logs somewhere on the internet to be searched for personal info).

Take a look at the Open Source, free PyKeylogger.

However, I have to agree with MSU above - for things like drop-down boxes, a screen capture/recorder utility would be more suitable, though probably much more time-consuming to analyse.

agrinnall

Thanks for the replies, I hadn't considered a screen recorder but I think that probably would be the best option. I'm only looking to record 4 - 6 sessions of about 30 minutes each so hopefully the analysis won't take up too much time.

I found a free download called BB Flashback Express http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/bbflashbackexpress/compareeditions.aspx (it's a cut down version of their paid for products), has anyone used it? It isn't time limited unlike Camtasia, which also seems to be overly complex for my needs.

agrinnall

I bit the bullet and downloaded BlueBerry Flashback Express and installed it (after a full back up, just in case ). It's easy enought to use and recorded 2 1/2 minutes of activity into a 25 MB file, so doesn't take up vast amounts of room. Playback can be slowed down so that I can make notes about what was done so overall it seems to fit the bill. You do need to register for a key after 30 days use so hopefully I won't be bombarded with spam emails after that.