SoftActivity Monitoring Software blog

Most antivirus products do not detect any problems with Activity Monitor employee monitoring software. In fact, there is no virus or spyware in Activity Monitor software. It only does what is declared in its features on the website, i.e. records employees activity on company-owned computers. Recordings are encrypted and stored on your company’s computers. Any recorded information can only be seen by the managers/administrators who have access to the data and know the password. We at SoftActivity do not have any access to the logs.

We recommend to add an exclusion in your antivirus to avoid detection and removal of Activity Monitor and Agent with any future updates of your antivirus product. It will then ignore presence of Activity Monitor and allow monitoring of computers in your office network and will not notify users.

We have posted instructions for popular antivirus products here on the right side. If your antivirus is not on the list, follow these general instructions below that apply to any antivirus product

The following instructions apply only for version 7.0 or newer of Activity Monitor. Upgrade to the latest version

To prevent any antivirus product from detecting, reporting or removing Activity Monitor you need to exclude the folder where Activity Monitor monitoring console and Agents are installed

Instructions for excluding Activity Monitor monitoring console on manager/administrator’s PC:

• It is recommended to stop real time protection in your antivirus temporarily before downloading and installing Activity Monitor
• Open Exclusions section in Settings in your antivirus product
• Add this folder to exclusions:
  “C:\Program Files (x86)\SoftActivity\Activity Monitor\” (on 64-bit Windows versions) or
  “C:\Program Files\SoftActivity\Activity Monitor\” (on 32-bit version of Windows).
• Then download and install Activity Monitor. It should install into the above folder.
• Optionally, you may first install Activity Monitor and after that add destination folder to exclusions. This is especially recommended on non-English versions of Windows, since “Program Files” folder is named differently

Instructions for excluding Agent on remote monitored computers:

• Open Exclusions section in Settings in your antivirus, copy the folder name from here: 
  C:\Windows\sysnchrb
  and add it to exclusions
• Install Agent locally or remotely as usual. The antivirus should ignore it

Additional information:

• When adding an exclusion, take into account that browsing for folder may not show the folder, since it’s not created until the software has been installed. In this case copy the name of the folder from this article and paste it in your antivirus
• If the antivirus does not allow entering folder name directly (only allows selecting a folder), create the folder in Windows and select it in the antivirus. Or first install the program and then select the folder for exclusion.
• If you use a centralized app for managing the antivirus on all computers in your corporate network, simply use the management app to exclude the folder on all monitored computers before deploying Agent app
• Notice that Agent is installed in C:\Windows\sysnchrb only since version 7. If you update from older version of Agent it will continue to install in old folder. To move Agent to the new folder above uninstall it and then install again

To install SoftActivity Keylogger parental control software on your computer with Vipre Antivirus you need an exclusion in your antivirus.
1. Open Vipre Antivirus, click Manage, Click Always Allowed button:

2. Select “Allow by name only” and enter: sklogger*

3. Select an “Allow an entire folder” and copy the folder name from here: C:\Windows\syspkgwk

4. Make sure that two allowed exclusions have been as below:

5. Download SoftActivity Keylogger and run downloaded file to install it on your computers. Vipre should not detect and block the program

If you have Symantec Endpoint Protection installed on your company computers, it may detect a threat/risk in Activity Monitor and Agent and delete it.  To avoid this you need to setup Exceptions in Symantec Endpoint. It will then ignore presence of Activity Monitor and allow monitoring of computers in your office network and will not notify users. Following steps below add these Centralized Exceptions  in Symantec Endpoint Protection:

• Spyware.ActivMonAgent
• Spyware.ActMon
• Folder on monitored computers: C:\Windows\sysnchrb
• Folder where Activity Monitor main console is installed: “C:\Program Files (x86)\SoftActivity\Activity Monitor\” (on Windows 64-bit) or “C:\Program Files\SoftActivity\Activity Monitor\” (on Windows 32-bit)

In case you use Symantec in Unmanaged Clients mode, you need to add these exceptions  on each workstation where you are going to install Agent and on the workstation or server where you install Activity Monitor. If you use Managed clients mode in Symantec you need to add exceptions only once in Endpoint Protections Manager on the server. This is preferred mode and makes adding exceptions to all client computers much easier.

You need to add exceptions on computers where you are planning to install Activity Monitor and Agent before the installation. If you add exclusions after installation, you may need to reinstall Activity Monitor again, as it could be already damaged by the antivirus. If Symantec detects a risk in Activity Monitor/Agent files it will ask user to choose an action. In this case you can right click it and click Exclude.

1. Open Symantec Endpoint Protection. Click Change Settings tab, then click Configure Settings button next to Centralized Exceptions:

Symantec Endpoint Protection settings window

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