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beidog  
#1 Posted : Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:01:48 AM(UTC)
beidog

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 1/18/2011(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: sf

We are computer administrators, we want to know some users' computer usage( especially work hours and break time).
I tested this software, and It looks like that all users need to run the program at least once in order to start tracking.
We don't want to ask each user's password one by one and do the set up for them.
We also don't want to let the user do the set up themselves.
we want to set it up within an Admin account, and do the set up for all users who use this computer.
After that, each user who logon on this computer will be tracked by ManicTime.(default database are in their profile folder)


Are all possible? If this works, we would consider to buy the pro version for some of our company employees, since our purpose is to monitor users' computer usages.
admin  
#2 Posted : Wednesday, January 19, 2011 11:50:53 AM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

Most likely the answer is no.

Scenario for every user has his own db
Install MT.
Somehow create a shortcut that app starts for everybody, maybe all users startup folder, registry key for machine... You probably know better than I do.
It should start with ManicTime /minimized

Scenario for users sharing the database
Download Usb version, copy to some folder everybody has access to, something like c:\manictime
From here on same as previous example.

If only one user is logged on at the time, this could work.
If more than one user is logged at the same time, data will most likely be duplicated.


For both scenarios

If this works, it will only work for free version. Pro version is encrypted with logged user, so every time somebody logs on it will complain about the key.


For now we haven't really thought about multi user scenarios. We will make some changes to the next versions to better support them.
beidog  
#3 Posted : Thursday, January 20, 2011 1:07:31 AM(UTC)
beidog

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 1/18/2011(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: sf

Thank you for your reply.
We really want this program to run on the background, since we don;t want users to know that we are tracking on their work hours and computer usages.
We are working in multi-OS environment, I tested it on WIN7,Vista and XP.

For Sharing Databbase, we put database on C:\
In XP, the following message will pop up while User B run this program(previously set up by User A). UserPostedImage
It looks like that it's a permission problem, but I already manually assign permission to "Everyone" for the both Database folder and the Program File folder.
However, the Sharing Database works very well on Vista and Win7.

For Auto Start ManicTime, I log on with User A, and put this program to computer startup for all user and I also set it up for "HIDE SYSTEM TRAY ICON"
Then UserC ( never log on to this computer before) log on to this computer. I checked Task Manager, Manictime.exe is running, and It SHOWED UP on system Tray(should not be). I didn;t click it and then I open a WORD file and then I log off.( pretending i am a user and I don't know this program is installed on my PC)

I log back on with User A, it looks like Manictime didn;t track what i just did with UserC.

so this program really need the user to click it at least once to let it to start tracking even though it's running on the background. is that right?

One more question, under Settings > General, I unchecked both "user Decimal hour format" options, and Click "Clear Statistics Cache" and restart my PC; however, the format still look like, (Day Start 9.48 ; Date End 18.61).
how to change it back something like, 9:21 and 18:34 format.

Edited by user Thursday, January 20, 2011 1:08:57 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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admin  
#4 Posted : Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:48:41 AM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

We tried the following.
Usb version to some folder on XP.
Added it to startup folder for all users.
When we tried it as different user we got the same error as you. We added modify permissions for everyone on the folder and things started working.

Icon will be visible to all users, until evaluation or pro version are entered. Licence is encrypted with logged users data so the first time licence would need to be activated, after that it would work.
Yes, user would need to open MT and create a licence at least one time.

We will try to simplify thing for the next version.


About the format, it changes in hints which are displayed on charts, but not the table data. It is a bug, we will fix it in the next version.

beidog  
#5 Posted : Friday, January 21, 2011 5:59:15 AM(UTC)
beidog

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 1/18/2011(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: sf

Thanks for the reply. I think we may consider buying it for the next version.
Hopefully, you can get something like the multi-users version, so Admin account can set it up and track the whole computer's activities without users' notices.
Steggy  
#6 Posted : Sunday, September 22, 2013 6:09:01 AM(UTC)
Steggy

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 9/22/2013(UTC)
Posts: 2

Has there been any progress on multiuser support?

I'd like to use ManicTime to track productivity on two machines in my work area. Those machines are used by multiple users throughout the day, but only by one person at a time. I want the users to actually use the program and tag time, etc., but I want the timeline to track the usage of the machine (all users) so that I can export the productivity of each machine at the end of each night for analysis.

Is this something that is possible? Would I have to use the free/portable version? I don't mind paying for each user, but the budget gods on high demand that I provide them with a cost before they'll approve the purchase, and I don't know if i need 2 licences (1 for each workstation), 8 licences (1 per user), or 16 licenses (1 per user per workstation).. or if the licences will even work properly (given whats said above).
admin  
#7 Posted : Monday, September 23, 2013 9:52:24 AM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

Some progress.

What I would do is set up ManicTime Server, then configure the client so that each user sends the data to the server.

If you do this then on the server you will be able to get reports by users and machines. So you would get something like

User 1
Machine 1
Machine 2

User 2
Machine 1
Machine 2

User 3
Machine 1

If you decide to use it, we can take a look if we can reverse this so it would be like

Machine 1
User 1
User 2
User 3
Machine 2
User 1
....

Then you could get reports for the machine, not user then machine. The stats are the same, its more of an UI issue than anything else.



You could also set up only one database for all users, you can do that in the deployment xml which you can generate once you set up the server. (Set a fixed path for the database, like c:\manictime.sdf. )

But then only one user must be active, I mean other users have to be logged out otherwise I think it might crash.

Our license is per user or per machine, whichever is smallest, so 2 licenses.
Steggy  
#8 Posted : Thursday, September 26, 2013 1:22:10 AM(UTC)
Steggy

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 9/22/2013(UTC)
Posts: 2

Great! Thanks for the information. Our software only allows 1 user logged in per workstation anyway, so that last option sounds like it'll work perfectly for us.
jxt  
#9 Posted : Thursday, September 26, 2013 8:39:35 AM(UTC)
jxt

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 9/27/2011(UTC)
Posts: 89
Location: sf

Any plans or progress in adding user accounts in MT server? I can't give my windows account password to my team and don't want to create additional users in my windows. I wish to be able to create accounts in MT server only for MT purposes without any privileges on my windows.
admin  
#10 Posted : Thursday, September 26, 2013 9:21:09 AM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

We will add it, but probably not in the next version. First we would like to finish the new tracker, after this is done we can work on this.
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