We have 9 pc’s & a server in a cupboard at work. Is there some software which can produce a report of peoples pc log in times on a monthly basis? Really i’m after keeping tabs on peoples time at work without having to go down the route of clocking in and out.
I’ve been told i can do it from the server but that method sounded a bit of a faff tbh.

Shutdown on a timer
https://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/put-a-shutdown-timer-on-your-windows-desktop-with-this-command/
Easy to get round though.

Is the “server” a domain controller?

Do people log out at night, or just lock the PC and go home?

lot of trust in that office! 😆

Windows AD should allow you to track AD logon/logoff as part of normal Windows logging (I think). It should then be possible to filter on those types of events and export to a spreadsheet to do things with. You could also force policy/GPO to domain-joined desktops to lock desktops after a period of inactivity (which is good practice anyway), which would let you get a better idea of how active they are.

If you have another machine knocking around you could try running up splunk and forwarding logs to it, but that’s likely to be overkill for what you need.

It seems a reasonably easy system to fool once people cotton on to what’s happening. That’s if people even log in, I think I’m lucky if I switch off my work pc every 2 months or so, which is the only time it gets logged into. add that to the fact that logging is doesn’t equate to people working.

Yeah. This is also covert monitoring if you don’t tell people what you are doing, and I suggest you get some legal advice if you plan to do anything at all with this information.

Quick and dirty method for 9 users:

Create a batch file ‘Login.bat’ and drop it into their Start-Menu\Startup folder

@echo off
echo LOGIN %USERNAME% FROM %COMPUTERNAME% at %time% %date% >> \\SERVER\SharedFolder\audit.log

You might well be able to do this remotely, if you have the admin login for their PC just navigate to \\computername\C$ and pop in the admin password, drop the batch file into: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (that’s my Win7, but this path can vary)

If you have Group Policy you can run this automatically on login & logout. Otherwise you can use the ‘Security’ log on the server, but I find this can be a bit hit & miss as services create login events, not just actual users.

And after somebody gets pulled or questioned nobody will log off for days

Ask the cleaners to turn off their PCs 😉 Shutdown scripts also possible but that is a faff.

lot of trust in that office!

Keeping track of times doesn’t (automatically) equate to lack of trust. It might be to support a flexible working policy, to ensure that there is an audit trail for billing customers, to understand where improvements could be made, or to address issues of fairness for the guy who is in before everyone else and leaves after them but gets paid the same…

Many places get people to self record a time sheet. The content is rarely particularly accurate and is an inconvenience. If you could track that just by recording time logged in and achieve much the same (or maybe better) data then it seems a no brainer. I would however be completely transparent that you are doing it (if only so someone can flag any anomolies – e.g. “was in the office all day fixing the PC so not logged in!).

Keeping track of times doesn’t (automatically) equate to lack of trust

Does if you don’t tell them

Really i’m after keeping tabs on peoples time at work without having to go down the route of clocking in and out.

Apart from being very inaccurate and perpetuating the attendance equals output myth. Be honest with people, sign in and out and use a proper project time tracker.