VTrace
What is VTrace?
VTrace is a software tool you install on your Pentium or better PC
running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 so it can trace things your
computer does. The traces it collects will be used in a study of how
to reduce the energy consumption of computers, as well as other
studies. You can read more about it in our MSDN
article.
Is using VTrace easy?
Yes, it is. To install VTrace 2.7, all you have to do is download the
executable (vtrace27.exe for Windows NT or
vtr2k27.exe for Windows 2000) into a
temporary directory, run it to extract its contents, then follow the
simple installation instructions in the readme.txt file that gets
created. You must have Administrator privileges to install VTrace.
Then you're done; VTrace will automatically collect traces in the
background and upload trace files to our web server during idle
periods.
You can also click here to read the readme.txt files for the Windows NT and Windows 2000 versions.
What kinds of things does VTrace record about my computer?
VTrace collects traces of the file system, the network, the disk
drive, processes, threads, interprocess communication, waitable
objects, cursor changes, windows, and the keyboard.
VTrace records metadata information about your filesystem, but not the
contents of files. Furthermore, although it does collect information
on keystrokes, it preserves the confidentiality of passwords and other
sensitive typed information by recording any unmodified letters
pressed (as opposed to modified letters, like Control-C) as X's, and
any unmodified numbers pressed as 9's.
My machine is behind a firewall. Does that matter?
Although VTrace should work from behind a firewall (see the readme.txt
file for instructions), downloading the VTrace executable from this
page is another matter. Some people have reported problems
downloading the executables on this page, which is usually due to
firewalls restricting the downloading of executables. To fix this,
download the executable using a machine not restricted in this manner.
Can I see the source code for VTrace?
Yes, you can. Go to the VTrace source page.
Our thanks...
Your participation in the study will be greatly appreciated. You may
help usher in the next generation of ultra-long battery-life
portables. Download VTrace now!
Windows NT users click here to download
vtrace27.exe.
Windows 2000 users click here to download
vtr2k27.exe.