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Home>Testing and reviews>Refog Personal Monitor

Refog Personal Monitor

Information

OS

Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2000 macOS

Price

Language

English, Brazilian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian

License

Shareware

Developer

Product page

  • OS Support
  • Security
  • Monitoring
  • Online Monitoring
  • Reports
  • Other
more

Refog Personal Monitor Review

Very functional and easy to use keylogger. Will come in handy if you are interested in home surveillance or parental control. Can be also used for employee monitoring. Available in 12 languages. In our testing, it gets 934 out of possible 1172 points.

New version of REFOG Personal Monitor supports Windows 10!

Advantages:
  • Multi-OS support
  • Grouping of the intercepted information into categories
  • Nice-looking, user-friendly interface
  • Very good file-activity monitoring
  • Multi-language interface
  • Good URLs interception
  • Strong visual surveillance
  • Both sides interception in messengers
  • Microphone Audio Recording
  • Webcam Capture Recording
  • Real-Time Remote Viewing

Disadvantages:
  • Not enough stealthiness level
  • A bulk of pre-installation windows to follow

Today we are writing about REFOG Personal Monitor. The primary usage keys, identified by REFOG Personal Monitor developer, is home computer's monitoring and parental control. But in our test all products are tested according to a single method, so there are no corrections for the intended usage range.

The installation process begins with choosing the language of installation. There are four languages to choose among: English, German, French and Spanish. The next screen is EULA screen. After accepting the license agreement and clicking "Next", we see "Information" screen. After reading the information about the program and choosing the folder to install it to, choosing whether to install shortcuts and help file, we confirm our choice in the last installation screen and the installation process begins. After it is finished, we choose "Launch REFOG Personal Monitor" and click "Finish" button.

The next thing that appears on our monitor is a screen asking us to order the full version of the program, register it or to continue a three days’ trial version. We choose the second variant and put in the information kindly provided by REFOG team. After registration is finished, we see the Configuration Wizard. Next five screens give us an opportunity to choose whether we want to monitor all users, what exactly we want to monitor, allows us to configure e-mail sending of log-files, choose whether to hide the program or not, and finally to choose if we want the program to update itself automatically.

Finally, we see the program interface and we must admit that it was worth waiting. It has all the features that the pleasant-to-look-at product should have: grouping of monitored information and settings into categories, abundance of nice icons and usability. Another strong point of the program interface is its availability in 12 languages (English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian). Very well!

As for the monitoring capabilities, this keystroke recorder also has a lot of qualities to boast of — it intercepts both sides in all chat messengers, except Skype, mouse-clicks and URLs in four of five browsers (IE, Mozilla, Opera and Chrome). It is able to perform all the operations with screenshots and log users' log off time. It is strange that it is unable to log the log on time, though… We should also add the following to the strong points of REFOG Personal Monitor: "Alarms" features, that correspond to the "Reaction to a specific keyword" point in our table, an ability to choose the users to monitor, automated clearance of the log file and an ability to set maximum size of log files for each user. The keylogger also has good, though not great, stealthiness level, as we were able to find its folder by the means, available to an average user. Few previous versions of REFOG Personal Monitor were bad at file activity monitoring, but this one is capable of monitoring of all the file activities, except creation of the files.

The good news is that the product has been improved with new features added. One of them is Microphone Audio Recording, which makes it possible to intercept and register the sounds from around via microphone - so the live voice conversations near the PC will also be saved. Another new important function is Webcam Capture Recording – at any moment the owner can take photos to see what is happening near his computer. The added Real-Time Remote Viewing ensures constant monitoring, i.e. the process of checking the activities on one’s computer can now be implemented in the online mode.

However, like all the products this one has its own disadvantages. The first one is, like it was already mentioned, a bulk of pre-installation steps to follow, the second one, is interception of only one side of chat conversations made in Skype. We are also a bit disappointed that such a great and functional program still doesn't intercept outgoing and incoming e-mail messages. Though we hope that this feature will be added soon.

Summing it up, we can say that for the purposes, that the developer of keystroke logger identifies as primary (monitoring usage of a home computer and parental control), this product works great. This computer monitoring software will come in handy for absolutely all the groups of users, except those who pay a lot of attention to complete stealthiness of the program.

Monitoring Software Features

Monitoring this group analyzes what monitoring functions the products has, such as keystroke, clipboard, file-activity, etc monitoring.

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Online Monitoring the group that reflects the availability of the functions to monitor users’ online activity, such as URLs visited, 2-side chat conversations interception and emails sent/received.

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Security this group shows how hidden the product is and what self-protection mechanisms it has.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Reports the group that basically analyzes the convenience of the intercepted information reading, including not only the ways to filter and show it, but also to deliver it remotely.

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Other other functions that cannot be part of any of the other groups listed, though a still very important such as parental control functions, languages, reactions to specific keywords, etc.

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

OS Support this group reflect the number and quality of the operation systems supported by the products.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Users’ rating is 4/5 based on 8 votes

Users’ reviews and comments for Refog Personal Monitor

"A good keylogger with an online dashboard"

Posted by RyanE.L on November 21, 2019
Version under review: Refog Personal Monitor
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

It has an online dashboard, so you can view your logs online.
Monthly payment.

Cons

Requires physical access to the device,
no discounts available for products.

Summary

This product ideally suits my needs. Monthly payment is also an advantage if the product will be used for a short time. But if you need something to use constantly, Spytech Spyagent will be a better choice: the price is better and there can be discounts.

"Beware monthly recurring charges"

Posted by joe on October 28, 2019
Version under review: Refog Personal Monitor
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

Great software

Cons

Deceptively charging monthly

Summary

I have used the software for years before not needing it, now that I need again I immediately went to Refog to find out that it is a monthly recurring charge!! Only when you go to checkout do you see it mentioned. Also they mention on the bottom of the site to call the 888 number for any pricing questions however when you call that number, the person on the other end is a front end for multiple companies, knows nothing and can only send your request to Refog via email... If the company cannot be transparent when it comes to simply billing, how can it be trusted at all, let alone act as a KEYLOGGER on your computer?!

"Refog is high-quality monitoring product."

Posted by BGriffin on May 20, 2019
Version under review: Refog Personal Monitor
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

Good price; has everything you need for parental control.

Cons

Everything suits me.

Summary

Refog Personal Monitor is a good and inexpensive keylogger, which is quite suitable for parental control.

"Nice child monitoring soft"

Posted by Garry A. on January 16, 2018
Version under review: Refog Personal Monitor
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

Simple and easy-to-use child computer monitoring software.

Cons

Trial period is quite short.

Summary

My wife is far from computers and tech, but she understand the work of in this simple and convenient parental software easily enough

"Quite good keylogger tool"

Posted by Gregory Hibbard on November 15, 2017
Version under review: Refog Personal Monitor
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

Simple and easy to use.

Cons

Quite expensive for the owners of a single computer.

Summary

Easy to use, but big enough price for a single license. But when you buy 3 licenses, the price drops significantly.

"Probably the best keylogger!"

Posted by tlgunn64 on October 30, 2012
Version under review: REFOG Personal Monitor 7.3
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

The company I worked in uses this keylogger to monitor the employees. I haven't tried many of them, yet can say that there is nothing I would have liked this one to have. It shows everything I need: actions with files, visited URLs, chats.

Cons

The price could be lower.

Summary

A very good keylogger.

"The one I was looking for!"

Posted by mscheuerman on October 25, 2012
Version under review: REFOG Personal Monitor 7.3
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

A good thing to monitor employees - easy to use, shows me all their activities: chats, links, opened windows and documents!

Cons

Doesn't show conversations in Skype

Summary

Good for use in the office!

"Like it!"

Posted by Sparky on July 6, 2012
Version under review: REFOG Personal Monitor 7.3
User Rating
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Pros

Installed it on a PC of my daughter and happy with a purchase. Now can read all her chats and see what sites she visits.

Cons

Would be better if a keylogger could block some of the programs as I want her to study more, not surf the Internet and chat with her friends.

Summary

Happy with a purchase. Seems to do almost everything I need.
 

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IMPORTANT! Installing computer monitoring tools on computers you do not own or do not have permission to monitor may violate local, state or federal law.