On Windows, how can I keep a typing history?
July 12, 2010 1:19 PM Subscribe
WindowsFilter: How can I keep a history of what I type?
Sometimes I'll accidentally delete an email draft, and wish I had a history of what I typed so I could get it back. Or work on a wiki page, but there is an edit collision so I lose my work, etc. Sometimes I just need to type the same text again, and would rather cut-and-paste it from history...
I came across 'keyloggers' in my google searches. They sound like stealthy, sneaky, will-secretly-email-you apps. From what I've read, Antivirus apps and Windows itself will detect keyloggers and disable them.
I use (and love) Ditto (clipboard history extender). I've tried just copying everything I type. That does help to some extent, but is still a bit of a pain. I've also written an AHK (AutoHotkey) script to keep a history. It works, but it's ugly. No searching or formatting...
I just want a normal app that sits in the systray that will keep a typing history for me in case I need it. It could flash a red X while it records for all I care. Preferably with a nice search feature, like Ditto has.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Sometimes I'll accidentally delete an email draft, and wish I had a history of what I typed so I could get it back. Or work on a wiki page, but there is an edit collision so I lose my work, etc. Sometimes I just need to type the same text again, and would rather cut-and-paste it from history...
I came across 'keyloggers' in my google searches. They sound like stealthy, sneaky, will-secretly-email-you apps. From what I've read, Antivirus apps and Windows itself will detect keyloggers and disable them.
I use (and love) Ditto (clipboard history extender). I've tried just copying everything I type. That does help to some extent, but is still a bit of a pain. I've also written an AHK (AutoHotkey) script to keep a history. It works, but it's ugly. No searching or formatting...
I just want a normal app that sits in the systray that will keep a typing history for me in case I need it. It could flash a red X while it records for all I care. Preferably with a nice search feature, like Ditto has.
Thanks in advance for any help!
The downside to a keylogger is that it logs everything you type, chronologically. Imagine you're writing a lengthy comment for MetaFilter. Maybe you can bang the whole thing out in one shot without error, but more likely you're going to jump around, editing and amending before you hit "post." A keylogger isn't going to recognize that you've moved the cursor back to the middle of the first paragraph to insert a couple words. Even when you're just correcting typos, a keylogger will log the original typo, the backspace characters, and the few correct letters you typed to fix it, producing a jumble of unreadable text. So if you originally type "badmitten" and then fix it, your log will read "badmitten^H^H^H^Hnton" or something to that effect. The logger only adds to the log in a linear fashion, it never subtracts.
Long story short, if you're trying to use a keylogger to restore an email draft or other chunk of text that was lost in a crash, it's going to be full of that sort of gobbledegook. It'd almost be easier to start over than to try to clean it up.
I don't know of any keylogger programs that are more intelligent and/or less stealthy, but there are certainly some good mail clients (and web browsers) out there that do a reasonable job at restoring lost drafts after a crash. Maybe you should look into those instead of keyloggers.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:48 PM on July 12, 2010
Long story short, if you're trying to use a keylogger to restore an email draft or other chunk of text that was lost in a crash, it's going to be full of that sort of gobbledegook. It'd almost be easier to start over than to try to clean it up.
I don't know of any keylogger programs that are more intelligent and/or less stealthy, but there are certainly some good mail clients (and web browsers) out there that do a reasonable job at restoring lost drafts after a crash. Maybe you should look into those instead of keyloggers.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:48 PM on July 12, 2010
This one is pretty old, but the description lists exactly the situations you mention. I'm guessing it might be to make it look less sketchy. (I haven't used it myself.)
Be warned that your passwords will be in this file as well, as clear text.
posted by supercres at 1:48 PM on July 12, 2010
Be warned that your passwords will be in this file as well, as clear text.
posted by supercres at 1:48 PM on July 12, 2010
I just reread the original question and I see now that you were referring to drafts lost by manual deletion, not a crash. Plenty of mail clients don't actually delete messages though, they just move them to a trash folder. You may be able to recover them now, or maybe you should switch to another client to prevent that sort of thing in the future. I personally never (fully) delete anything, and with HDDs as voluminous as they are these days it doesn't make a difference at all. Email is tiny; you really needn't erase anything ever.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:56 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:56 PM on July 12, 2010
If everything you are typing is in a browser, TextAreaCache for Firefox is exactly what you're looking for.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:56 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:56 PM on July 12, 2010
drjimmy11: "If everything you are typing is in a browser, TextAreaCache for Firefox is exactly what you're looking for."
Even better, Lazarus is an extension that does exactly that; it also has a nice interface and allows you to display entries by time entered, search for text etc. Very useful, and it doesn't seem to need a lot of resources.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 3:01 PM on July 12, 2010
Even better, Lazarus is an extension that does exactly that; it also has a nice interface and allows you to display entries by time entered, search for text etc. Very useful, and it doesn't seem to need a lot of resources.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 3:01 PM on July 12, 2010
Security software won't interfere with a hardware keylogger.
posted by flabdablet at 6:42 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by flabdablet at 6:42 PM on July 12, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Eicats at 1:28 PM on July 12, 2010