Introduction to Settings

Why Customize Your Settings?

After installing the program and restarting your computer, Spector Pro begins recording data. At any point, you may review and adjust the settings. These settings ultimately determine what information is captured, and therefore what you see in the Spector Pro Viewer. Spector Pro settings are very flexible and can be easily customized to suit your needs.

When Spector Pro captures data, it divides the data into different "activities". Activities include: chat / IM conversations, web sites visited, online searches, email messages, files transferred, keystrokes typed, program activity, network activity, document tracking, and keywords detected. In addition, screen snapshots provide a visual history of exactly what was on the screen when the snapshot was taken. Data pertaining to each activity is presented in a series of event windows on the Spector Pro Viewer. For definitions of these words, and a explanation of what Spector Pro records for each activity, click here.

Before you make changes to the settings, be sure you close all applications that are running, for the new settings to affect those applications.
Before you make changes to the settings, make sure ALL users are logged off (if there are multiple accounts), for the new settings to affect those users.
You must click OK at the bottom of the Settings window to save the changes you have made.
Settings must be changed separately on each monitored computer if you are using a remote Viewer.

Use the Settings window to:

Select activity to record- Turn the recording of any type of activity on or off, and customize the parameters that pertain to each activity.

Screen Snapshots (all activity)
Chat/IM Activity
Web Sites Visited
Email Activity
Files Transferred
Keystrokes Typed
Program Activity
Network Activity
Document Tracking Activity

Ask Spector Pro to detect specific words - Create a list of words and phrases called "keywords" that you want Spector Pro to look for. When a keyword is typed in any document, contained in a message or conversation, or appears on a web page or online search, you can elect to receive an "alert" via email.

Block access to what you consider objectionable - Select specific web sites, chat / IM contacts, or Internet functions to block; and, if more than one user logs in to the computer you can decide who you want to block. You can also create a schedule of when you want to prevent access to the Internet functions.

Set up who, what, and when to record - Because there may be certain times of the day or days of the week when you do not want Spector Pro to record any activity, you can decide when to start and stop capturing information. (By default, recording begins when the computer is turned on, and stops when the computer is shut down or when you open the Viewer). In addition, you can select specific programs that are currently installed on the monitored computer and either include or exclude them from recording. If more than one user logs in to the computer, you can decide who you want to record.

You can also use the Settings window to manage security and data file settings.

Restoring Default Settings

At any time after you have altered the settings, you can always change them back to the default values. This is particularly helpful if you adjusted something and Spector Pro is no longer functioning properly. (This feature does not remove a keyword list that you may have created, but it does restore all Blocking settings to the default values.) To restore settings:

Select Help > Technical Support Diagnostics > Restore Default Settings on the menu bar. A confirmation message appears reminding you that settings will be restored to the factory-default values.
Click Yes to restore the settings to how they were when you purchased Spector Pro, or No to leave them as they currently are.

If you select Yes, the following message appears:

Click OK to close the window.

Next you will take a look at the Settings Window, learn how to access it and how to navigate around it.