{rw_text}Giveaway of the day for March 7, 2009 is:

Ultimate Keylogger

Version Reviewed:

1.10.02

Software description as per GOTD:

Ultimate Keylogger monitors all activities on computer systems including applications, keyboard, passwords, clipboard, chat, email, and visited websites. It sends encrypted activity reports invisibly via Email, FTP or network.

Ultimate Keylogger is the popular all-round monitoring solution. It monitors all activities on computer systems including applications, keyboard, passwords, clipboard, chat, email, and visited websites. To avoid tampering of the software, it features a unique file protection. Ultimate Keylogger is completely undetectable. During monitoring sessions it will not be listed in the task manager. The software can be installed in less than five minutes and runs maintenance free. Ultimate Keylogger displays reports in web format or sends zip-compressed and encrypted activity reports invisibly via Email, FTP or network. Ultimate Keylogger has a password protected interface and hot-key combination for accessing the application. All recorded information is stored in an encrypted file. Ultimate Keylogger does not consume computer resources.

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{rw_good}

• Logs key stroke, clipboard activity, application usage, and visited URLs (IE only).
• Can take screenshot automatically at a designated interval.
• You can password protect the program.
• You can automate reports to be sent to various different locations.
• You can password protect your reports before you send them.
• You have the ability to warn people that their activity is being monitored.
• All logged activity is encrypted until you view it.

{/rw_good} –>

{rw_bad}

• Not very accurate.
• Constantly tries to add itself to start up programs list (thank you WinPatrol for protecting me =D!)
• Screenshots are not/cannot be compressed.
• Logs visited URL in IE only.
• No way to exit program bar Alt + Ctrl +Del.
• You can only uninstall UK (Ultimate Keylogger) via UK /UK Folder.

{/rw_bad} –>

{rw_score}
{for=”Features as Described” value=”8″}8 because it does display in Task Manager regardless of what the developer says. And it obviously does consume computer resources.
{/for}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”10″}Nothing too difficult about this software.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”2″}The keylogger does not pick up a lot of my keystrokes (like in Word or Notepad);  the application logger does not pick up programs much of the time, like Word, NotePad, FormatFactory, etc. Lastly, it is constantly trying to add itself to my start up menu w/o giving me a chance to say no.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”5″}While I am sure everyone has someone they would like to spy on/know what they are doing but ethical issues will cause this program not to be useful to most people.
{/for}
{for=”Arbitrary Equalizer” value=”2″}This category reflects an arbitrary number that does not specifically stand for anything. Rather this number is used to reflect my overall rating/verdict of the program in which I considered all the features and free alternatives.
{/for}
{/rw_score} –>

{rw_verdict}[tdown]
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Registration and installation went fine. During installation you will be asked if you want to install in ‘Secure mode’ or ‘Normal mode’. The difference, as the window tells you, is that in ‘Secure mode’ no shortcuts are created for this program. If this is your first time using this program I suggest going normal mode (like I did – then I uninstalled/reinstalled in secure to see how it goes). Avira nor WinPatrol categorized this software as spyware. I was surprised at that – but it is probably because the software did not try to install in a shady way nor does it try to run in a shady way.

Ultimate Keylogger, is obviously a program that monitors your activity. It monitors and record your key strokes (in fact it is monitoring mine as we speak…gasp!), your clipboard activity, what applications/programs you are running, and if you are in Internet Explorer, what URL you are visiting. In addition it has the ability to take screenshots at a designated interval (you designate the interval).

This is what the program looks like:

The program is pretty straightforward. Be warned that as soon as you run the program it starts recording activity. You can stop it though but it starts automatically. In the top right you have the “Monitoring Options” from where you choose what you want to monitor:

As far as I can tell, for “Log Applications” the program records what is in the title of the program/app you have currently open as opposed to what the program actually is. For example, when visiting GOTD, UK records “Giveaway of the Day – free licensed software daily. Ultimate Keylogger – Ultimate Keylogger monitors all activities on computer systems including applications, keyboard, passwords, clipboard, chat, email, and visited websites. – Mozilla Firefox” as opposed to just “FireFox”.

Be warned about the screenshots: UK does not compress the screenshots so they may take up a lot of space on your computer very quickly (depending on your resolution of monitor, the interval you set the screenshots to be taken at, .etc).

Under “Monioring” you will find “Security”:

The “Password Protection” is for UK – whenever your try to maximize it from the system tray you will have to enter a password if you enable this feature. When you change your password or toggle it on/off your logs, the ones that record your activity, are deleted.

Under “Security” there is “Banner”. “Banner” has an interesting feature (“Show message every…”). It allows you to display a custom message every X seconds/minutes that warns the user that his/her activity is being monitored:

Under “Security” there is some housekeeping things. The only thing of interest here is the “Uninstall” feature:

If you go to uninstall UK, you will not find it under Add/Remove Programs. Heck even RevoUninstaller was unable to uninstall UK. To uninstall UK you either hit “Uninstall” from here or you can go to C:/ProgramData/uklpr and run unukl.exe to uninstall. That file path is for Vista – I am not sure of the XP equivalent. Update: Just for kicks after my review I decided to uninstall this program via the unukl.exe in the ProgramData folder. I found out that if you run that, it does not delete all the files properly. So bottom line is that if you want to uninstall the program you must do it the program!

Going back up to the top of the program window, there is the “Monitoring Status” section where you can enable/disable logging at your will:

Under “Monitoring Status” you will find “Logs”:

There can only be one log for your Windows account at a time (i.e. only one “Lakjin” log can exist). The information that is recorded is constantly added to that log. If you want to start over just delete that log and a new one will be created automatically. You don’t have any control over the logs besides deleting them. If you click on “Logs folder…” you will be brought to a folder where you will see your current log as a folder. For example I would see a “Lakjin” folder. If you create a new folder there, then turn minimize/maximize UK a new log will be listed under “Logs”. However if you try to record to that log, nothing will record (least I had no success).

It is worth noting here that until you actually click on “View Report” or “View Screenshots” the information that has been recorded so far is in encrypted form so no one can stroll in an access it like it is no body’s business. Once you click on “View Report” and “View Screenshot” the data becomes decrypted. However when you minimize the program window you will be prompted if you want to “Delete Decrypted Data” which you can click “Yes” to delete that decryted data (the log is still in tact so you don’t lose your information after deleting the decrypted data).

Lastly, there is the “Send Reports” feature:

Everything about “Send Reports” is pretty straightforward so there is no much explaining. However, according to the developer, your reports will be sent ‘silently’ meaning that no one will know reports are being sent out.

Okay so that is the whole program. Before we go onto actual keylogging/activity monitoring performance let me talk about a few behaviors of this program that really make it more spyware then a legit keylogger:

• There is no way to close the program once you have it started outside of Alt + Ctrl + Delete. You can try hitting “X” on the program window but it will just be minimized to system tray. If you right click on the system tray icon you will just be prompted to maximize the program window.
• This program adds it self to your start up program list, i.e. it will start on Windows boot. Did you notice any option that you could turn off to prevent this from happening? Ya me neither. This is very bad that the developer has this program add its self to start up list yet does not give the user a choice in the matter. Good thing there are free programs like WinPatrol that protect us:

• Refer back to the inability to uninstall this program from anywhere except the program itself (you won’t find it under Add/Remove programs).

In addition to all that, the developer claims that “Ultimate Keylogger is completely undetectable. During monitoring sessions it will not be listed in the task manager.” That is not true. What the developer did was give UK an obscure name hoping no one would notice. You can find UK on Task Manager – you just need to know what to look for:

Okay so all that said, how is the performance of Ultimate Keylogger? Does it record everything it says? Every key stroke? Every program? No. Sorry for being blunt. I found that UK is able to record all my keystrokes while on FireFox just fine. However when I open up notepad, or Word, or Wordpad (and I assume any other text editor) no key strokes are recorded at all. In addition it is unable to detect any of those application either. In fact it did not detect many applications for me –  besides FireFox and UK  that is (and RevoUninstaller). For the developer’s sake I hope that I am an extreme case (which I have my doubts I am). And yes, I know someone is going to ask: I tried running as Admin, I tried installing as Admin, I tried it all. On the bright side, UK does take screenshots like it claims. Too bad the screenshots are not compressed – they will eat up your hard drive if you are not careful.

In conclusion, all things considered, Ultimate Keylogger = big thumbs down. It does not work well at all. Even if you ignore how it performs, UK acts too much like spyware for my taste. Developer of UK if you ever read this: rethink how you made your program. Please.

{rw_freea}

Do I really have to give free alternatives to keyloggers? :( Fine:

Free KGB Key Logger

Imagine you are writing an e-mail message. Then you click a wrong button or your e-mail client hangs and you have to write the same text from scratch. Sounds familiar? With KGB Free Keylogger, you will never lose any of your text, whether it was typed in an e-mail client, a text editor, an on-line form or anywhere else. This free program logs everything you type. Get your passwords, registration keys and other info safely logged.

-Download.com

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KGB KL works really well. The free version can’t take screenshots though.

{/rw_freea} –>

{rw_verdict2}Thumbs down all the way for Ultimate Keylogger. Not only is it not very accurate (missing out on keystrokes and application launches left and right), but the fact that you must close it via brute force, it keeps trying to add itself to start up programs list (again I thank WinPatrol) and you can only uninstall it via itself really makes me puke at this program. Come on – are you trying to be a legit key logger or spyware? Free KGB Key Logger, while not as feature filled, is much better. Lastly, this is Ashraf reminding you to only use key loggers responsibly!
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