Counting application use

Good Morning-

In our library we have 15 computers available for public use.  Each of these computers has Office 2007 on them along with Internet Explorer.  I want to track how many times each application is used per day.   Does anyone have suggestions on how to do this?  Collecting this information will help me evaluate how our patrons are using the computers and wether or not we need to offer addtional or different software for their use.

Thanks,

Seth Stephens

Jefferson Township Public Library

Oak Ridge, N.J.

There are time tracking programs, such as Manic Time and Rescue Time, that track how much time you spend using different applications. The reports would not only show how much time is spent using Office, but they would show how that usage compares to that of other programs, too.

I'm not sure if either of these specific programs would work with your setup... should be as easy as installing then adding a shortcut in the All Users' StartUp folder.

That sounds a lot easier than my hack.

I was considering using a batch file to launch the applications.  The batch file would open another file, add 1 to the proper software category (i.e. Word 2007 would get +1, or Excel 2007), then have the batch file launch the application.  I would change all the shortcuts on the desktop to do this, and change their icons to be the same as the usual ones.

This wouldn't help when a user took their own removable storage and launched the application by double clicking on a file.

Question for you - do you use Windows Steady State in that lab?  Or something else?  Nothing?