Want to know if your employees play solitaire when they should be working. Want to know why windows seems to take longer and longer to load?. You'll be able to get the answers and more with SYSTEM LOG.
System log is a small, fast assembly language program which will log (with date and time) to a file, most file activity. It accomplishes this by monitoring dos function calls. Dos function calls are low level routines used by the operating system to provide services to most programs including windows and windows applications.
( There are a few programs that access bios directly or use other methods of file access.)
System Log will log to a file with date and time:
FILE ACCESS
NEW FILE CREation
FILE RUN (Loaded or executed)
FILE DELETED
For some application programs, your log file will show multiple file access to the same file. "FILE ACCESS " will log to file if a program calls dos functions to open a file handle for a read, write or read/write. Some applications do all three to the same file.(They have their reasons.)
If you're running windows (any version) be aware that when windows loads, it opens many files and handles and you'll quickly build a large log file., (c:\syslog.wri), Beta tester's report that a typical days' usage will log 40k or more to this file...so regular deletions are necessary.
( By the way I named the file syslog.wri so that it may be opened as as write file from windows. by double clicking from file manager...it is however a simple ascii file.)
You may analyze the syslog.wri file to see how you can speed up windows.(See Windows Section)
You may add or delete info from the c:\syslog.wri file and resave at any time, or even delete the whole file, without a system lockup or crash. either from windows or any dos editor or from dos.
System log has been extensively beta tested and no bugs have been found.
System log does not add appreciable time to any file activity . As a matter of fact it only slowed windows 3.1 loading by an average of about 3 tenths of a second ( my Windows 3.1 takes 8 seconds to load) and window application effects were too low to measure.(estimated at 10 ms)
Installation:
After decompression, make a directory called syslog on c:\.
( MKDIR syslog)
and copy all files decompressed to it.
At the dos prompt type syslog
(syslog)
If you prefer, you may add the line:
c:\syslog\syslog.exe
to your autoexec.bat file
(System Log is extremely well behaved but if you have trouble loading you may have other TSRs running. You may want to change the order of loading. )
THAT'S IT.. Just do some normal stuff then examine the file created by System Log:
(syslog.wri in your c:\ directory) at any time to see activity.
(The registered version will automatically create and log to a hidden file and will load
without prompts or notices.)
Please examine the other files included with syslog.exe
Commands:
Simply enter syslog on the command line and the program will load
enter syslog /u if for some reason you need to unload it from memory.
The above is a small (very small) portion of the typical file activity windows does when loading. The startup of windows 3.1 will take up about 8-10k in the syslog.wri file, depending on your system (especially drivers and fonts) so why look at it? Well you really won't need to look at it more than once..once you use the information to optimize windows.
Some things to look for:
1 See if windows is looking for the same file in different directories...if it is, move that file to the first directory windows looks for it in. (You should always start windows from the windows directory..and windows should be first in your dos path(if windows is your most used shell)).
2 Make sure that the file windows is looking for exists. ( If you pick chess.bmp as wallpaper then delete the file, windows will still look for it (and waste time).
Within a brief period, you'll recognize the startup files and you can easily bypass them to get down to the serious business of looking at who is playing solitaire and for how long.
Registration:
System Log is NOT FREE. You MUST REGISTER after the 30-day evaluation period. Registration will bring you the latest version of the software( on 5.25 disk unless you specify otherwise) The registered version will load without notice and log to a hidden file making it better suited to employee/security monitoring .
System Log is a Shareware product. It is distributed through public access channels so that prospective buyers can have the opportunity to evaluate the product before making a decision to buy. If you decide to use this software, then you are under both legal and moral obligations to register it with the author. It is fully protected by State, Federal and International copyright laws.
If you continue to use System Log after the 30-day evaluation period you must register it.
