System Usage Monitor & Viewer

A lightweight, high-performance system tracking toolkit built entirely in C++ using the native Windows API and Dear ImGui.

🚀 Components

The project is split into two distinct, standalone applications:

1. Background Monitor (monitor.exe) -It Automatically add this executable to the Windows Startup folder do from next time it auto start.

   • Runs invisibly in the background with a ~0% CPU footprint.
   • Runs invisibly in the background with a lees than i mb of ram footprint.
   • Automatically tracks exactly which application window is actively focused on your screen.
   • Logs precise session Start/End times to daily .txt files inside the logs/ folder.
   • Contains a single-instance Mutex to prevent duplicates and a custom Killswitch mechanism for safe shutdown without corrupting active logs.

2. GUI Log Viewer (gui_viewer.exe)

   • A modern, hardware-accelerated dashboard built using Dear ImGui and DirectX 11.
   • Apps View: Groups your daily activity into an interactive Tile layout. Displays the exact portion (percentage) of your total PC time spent in each app.
   • Timeline View: A flow-visualization timeline that maps out exactly how you switched between apps throughout the day, including highlighting parallel overlapping sessions (+).
   • Features dynamic log merging, allowing you to combine fragmented sessions that occur within a configurable timeframe (default 5 minutes).

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🛠️ How to Compile

Because this project uses the native Windows API and DirectX 11, it is designed to be compiled using standard g++ (MinGW) on Windows. No heavy frameworks (like Qt or Electron) are required.

1. Compiling the Monitor

g++ monitor.cpp -O2 -s -static -mwindows -o monitor.exe -lole32 -luuid

(Note: The -mwindows flag ensures the tracker detaches from the terminal and runs completely invisibly in the background).

2. Compiling the GUI Viewer

The viewer requires the official Dear ImGui source files to build the interface.

Step A: Download ImGui
Clone the ImGui repository directly into your project folder:

git clone https://github.com/ocornut/imgui.git

Step B: Compile the Viewer
Run this command to compile all the custom viewer code alongside the ImGui DirectX 11 backend:

g++ main.cpp gui.cpp log_parser.cpp imgui/*.cpp imgui/backends/imgui_impl_win32.cpp imgui/backends/imgui_impl_dx11.cpp -I imgui -I . -ld3d11 -ld3dcompiler -lgdi32 -ldwmapi -lole32 -luuid -O2 -static -std=c++17 -mwindows -o gui_viewer.exe

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⚙️ How to Use

Starting the Tracker

Simply double-click monitor.exe. To have it run automatically every day, press Win + R, type shell:startup, and place a shortcut to monitor.exe inside that folder. It will automatically create a logs/ directory next to itself and begin recording your active windows silently.

Viewing your Usage

Double-click gui_viewer.exe. It will automatically scan your logs/ folder, parse the data, and present you with your total usage statistics!