LastActivityView is a free utility that can display a log of events and user actions that took place on your Windows computer. The application lists a large number of activities, such as running executables, installing software, opening files and folders, system and application crashes, open and save dialogs, blue screens and many others.
Installation & Requirements
LastActivityView is a portable tool that reads information from registry keys, crash dumps, event logs, prefetch files…etc. to display the activity log. As a result, you can simply run the program after you’ve extracted the contents of the downloaded archive, with no installation needed.
According to the developer, LastActivityView runs on all versions of Windows from 2000 to 8.
Interface
As soon as you launch it, LastActivityView will quickly scan your computer and display all actions in a list. For each action, the application shows the time & date when it occurred, its description (e.g.: view folder in Explorer, open file or folder, user logon, software installation…etc.), filename and its full path (if there is any related to the action).
Selecting File – Properties for any selected action/event will open up a box showing all of the above mentioned attributes. Not many options are available within the program, the View menu being the most consistent one. The options offered here, allow users to change how they view the log. These include showing grid lines, showing tooltips, marking odd/even rows, choosing and autosizing columns. From the View menu you can also create HTML reports for selected items or all of them. Moreover, users have the option to save selected items into a text file (in the File menu) and change the time format to GMT (in Options menu).
LastActivityView is not crammed with options and settings, so it’s rather easy to learn, even for users with no or little technical experience. Even so, the program’s folder does include a HTML help file that offers guidance on how to use the program.
Worth mentioning is the fact that LastActivityView does come with some limitations related to changes performed to registry keys for example, which could affect the accuracy of the displayed information. Some of these changes can be performed by the user, but even PC maintenance tools could remove records used by the program to display the activity log.
Pros
– Portable, free utility
– Displays many types of user actions and events such as running and installing applications, opening files and folders, user logons and logouts, system start and shutdown, creation of restore points, blue screens, software crashes and hangs…etc.
– The actions and events list can be saved in text and HTML formats.
Cons
– None worth mentioning.
Conclusion
For a portable tool LastActivityView does a very good job at showing information about what’s been happening on PCs. The utility does have some limitations, but overcoming these would most likely result in a program that you’d have to install so it can record computer activities.
