Snitcher

Snitcher is a stealthy Windows-based activity logger that monitors and records active application usage with timestamps and durations.

Goal

The objective behind Snitcher is to track which applications are actively used on a Windows system—when, for how long, and in what sequence—without user interaction or visible output. Useful for usage analytics, productivity tracking, or parental monitoring.

Libraries Used

• psutil: For process and system-related information.
• win32gui and win32process: To access the active window and its associated process.
• os, time, datetime: For file handling and time tracking.

Features

• Tracks application name and window title
• Logs start and end times with accurate durations
• Detects and logs task switches
• Groups logs by date
• Buffered writes to reduce I/O
• Auto-prunes logs older than 1 day every 6 hours

Example Log Entry

App: chrome.exe (ChatGPT - Google Chrome) | Start: 13:00:05 | End: 13:07:13 | Duration: 428.00 sec Task switched

Installation

1. Make sure Python 3.x is installed.

2. Install required packages:

   pip install psutil pywin32

3. Run the script:

   python snitcher.py

Notes

• Works only on Windows due to dependency on pywin32.
• Log file is stored at C:\WindowsX86\app_usage.log.

Disclaimer

This script is intended for ethical and legal use only. Do not use it to monitor others without explicit consent.