Have you ever wondered how many keys you press in a day? Perhaps you wonder what application you type the most in? How about how many clicks you make, and where on the screen you click the most? If this sounds interesting to you, you’ll get a lot of use out of the free software WhatPulse.
WhatPulse is an app that tracks the keys you press and the areas you click. This may sound suspiciously like a ‘keylogger’ – a software that secretly installs itself on your hard drive and sends your typed data (such as passwords) to a criminal. WhatPulse claims that the information it gathers is purely for statistical usage, and will never be used or sold.
You can download WhatPulse from their website. Once done, you sign in either with a username and password, or via Facebook login. Once you’ve signed up and logged on, you’ll be brought to the main window. It looks like this:
To explain the tabs at the top:
Overview is where you can see the base elements of your computer. You can use this to see what hardware your computer has. You can also use this screen to see the amount of words you’ve typed, and the clicks you’ve made. You’ll notice that keypresses and clicks are segregated into two camps: Total, and Unpulsed. Total is the total amount of clicks and keypresses you’ve made since starting the software. ‘Unpulsed’ means the count you’ve accrued without sending the data to the WhatPulse server. The ‘Pulse!’ button will send the unpulsed data to the server, updating your statistics on WhatPulse‘s end.
Input shows you all the data behind your computer usage. The arrows at the top-right can be used to scroll through the various ways you can see your usage data. The data, in order, are; Keyboard Heatmap, Mouse Heatmap, Applications, and Input History. Keyboard Heatmap is shown below; it displays what keys you press most. Mouse Heatmap shows a screen displaying where you click the most. Applications gives you stats about the keypresses and clicks you make in different applications. Input History allows you to compare inputs from previous days.
Network simply shows you your download and upload statistics. You can use this to see how much bandwidth you’re using up – handy if you’re on a strict data plan!
Uptime shows you how long your computer has been running.
Settings and Account contains features that allow you to customize your WhatPulse experience. This includes the ‘View Online Stats’ button on the Account page, which allows you to see all the data you’ve pulsed so far. WhatPulse will even rank you against other users around the world!
After you’ve installed the app, there’s not much else you need to do with it. Just go about your daily business and check in from time to time to see how your stats are faring up. Remember to pulse your data to the servers every so often to keep the server updated on your progress.
So why not download the software and see how you use your own computer? Maybe you’ll find out some surprising facts about your computer usage!
~ S.E. Batt