One of the most annoying problems in the family or at home is sharing the same computer. A PC is personal, everyone organizes it as they see fit and you are never happy if someone touches it, moves it or moves the files inside it, perhaps changing settings, deleting data or doing our business.
In another article we saw how it is possible to create accounts on Windows and manage users of the computer so that each has its own options and customizations.
In this instead we see how to check if someone has used our PC, what he looked at and what he did.
The article is aimed at looking for evidence on the use of a computer, to find out where you can look to find traces of what has been done .
There are many things that testify to the use of a computer: restarting, unsuccessful attempt to access the Windows account, launching programs, browsing the Internet, opening files and more.
1) Check the Windows registries
The tool used by every computer analyst is the control of the Windows registry useful above all to find out the causes of errors or crashes of the PC.
The Windows event log can tell you a lot about what your computer does, not just if something goes wrong.
To open the event viewer you have to go to Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Computer Management.
On the left side there is the Event Viewer divided into several categories.
The one to be checked is the protection log that shows each restart access or disconnection to the PC.
By browsing the application registry, you will be able to find, among the many useless information, if there has been use during a period of time in which the computer has been left unattended, for example by launching the search.
2) Check the recent files
Checking for recently modified files is one of the easiest ways to catch anyone who has got their hands on our computer without permission.
The fastest way is to check for "Recent Items" in the Windows Start menu.
This may work, but a more computer savvy person will probably have thought of right clicking on "Recent Items" to completely delete them.
However, it is still possible to search for the latest modified files, by opening Windows Explorer and doing a search on the C: drive (local disk) then pressing on "Last modified date" and choosing "Today" or yesterday ".
You can select a specific date in the search box by writing latest modification: 05/09/2013 to obtain a complete list of all the files that were modified that day.
If you are lucky you can find a document or a log file that clearly proves the use of the computer on that day.
Needless to say, you can check the history of web browsers, perhaps using a tool such as History Viewer to see the history of sites visited with IE, Firefox, Chrome.
3) As a last resort, if you cannot find traces of activity on the pc that you suspect has been used by others, you can create a scheduled operation that sends an e-mail every time the computer goes out of hibernation mode, or when it starts .
Then open Control Panel> Administrative Tools and then on Scheduler .
From the Action menu, create a new activity and change option by placing the cross on "Run regardless of user connection ".
Under the activation tab, press on New and then set the start of the activity to "on start " or " on unlock ".
You can be more specific by selecting an event from the list, and then choosing which program or system event activates the notification that someone is using the computer.
In this case choose the option " To an event " and choose Application or one of the other events.
In the Action tab instead you can run Blat, the small command line tool that allows you to send automatic emails from your computer, which I mentioned some time ago with a guide (to be read now if you don't know the tool).
Then put " c: \ download \ blat \ blat.exe " (or select the path where blat.exe is located) and then put as an argument -body Someone uses my computer! -to -subject Attention, pc access!
In another article there are more extreme solutions to Spy on a pc and see how the computer is used by others using Keylogger or programs like iSpy.
READ ALSO: Find out if and who enters the computer so as not to be checked or spied on
