DesktopScanner

DesktopScanner is an application designed to monitor your desktop activity and regularly take snapshots to save as image files. This way, you can find out the actions taken by other users with access to your personal computer.

Simple setup and interface

The only notable aspect about its setup operation is that you must have Java installed. When it comes to the interface, DesktopScanner opts for a standard window with a simple appearance and neatly structured layout, where all options are visible.
In the unregistered edition of the application, you can simply specify an output directory to save the new screenshots in. As warned by the application, the folder should be empty, otherwise it automatically deletes any existing files before saving the screenshots.

Capture the desktop activity as pictures

The tool takes screenshots every seven seconds, enable you ti change the number of seconds, and adds the current date and time to the new images, saving them in JPG format. It does not save more than 50 photos. Unfortunately, DesktopScanner doesn't make room for customization unless you purchase the full package.
It cannot be integrated into the Windows autostart sequence. Moreover, it doesn't give you the possibility to randomize the frequency for grabbing shots, for saving pictures in another format than JPG, nor for changing the password necessary to stopping the monitor (default is "123456") when triggering the secret key combination (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+X).

Evaluation and conclusion

It didn't put a strain on the computer's performance in our tests, running on a low amount of CPU and RAM. Unfortunately, the default password didn't work in our case, so we were forced to terminate Java's process from Task Manager.
All in all, DesktopScanner comes packed with handy options to help you monitor and capture your desktop's activity to image files at regular times. However, we expected richer features.