Spector Pro for Mac

Spector Pro for Mac is a very functional keylogger for mac. Its functionality is good for monitoring of employees and your home computer. Its interface is handy and nice looking. Despite the plenty of features Spector Pro for Mac is easy to use and configure.

Advantages:

• Grouping of the intercepted information into categories
• Good security
• Good interception of chat conversations
• Pleasant to look at, user friendly interface
• Emails sent/received monitoring
• Good file-activity monitoring
• System-inactivity time recording
• Good visual surveillance

Disadvantages:

• No remote log-files' delivery
• Available in English only
• Not enough URLs' interception
• No clipboard interception

Installation

InstallationWe download the installation image of Spector Pro for Mac and mount it. In the appearing window we click the corresponding button and the installer launches. During the installation we pass through the following set of windows: Introduction → License → Registration → Installation Type → Security → Installation → Summary. The names of windows are self-explanatory, we only would like to mention that in "Security" window we are asked to specify the administrator password.
"Security" WindowBy the way the installer informs us about this from the start.

We usually don't like when installer asks too much questions, yet this one explains every action required from the user in an easily-understandable way, not requiring the user to know much about keyloggers. However, we must inform you that the installer doesn't warn about the need of a reboot in the end of installation process, so be sure you are ready for a reboot of your computer before clicking "Finish" button.

Once we are logged into the system again we press the hotkey combination required to access the keylogger, put in its password and finally see the interface of Spector Pro for Mac.

Interface

Log ViewerWhat we see is a log viewer. Its window is horizontally divided into sections. Buttons providing switching between the categories, intercepted information is grouped into, are located on the top of the window. Below it, a panel with logs' controls can be found. All the rest of the window, except a tiny panel with filter (we will talk about it later), shows the information intercepted: the upper part informs us about what and when happened, the lower one lets us know the details. The filter panel we have mentioned, is located on the window's bottom and takes very little space when filtering is turned off. Clicking "Edit" button near the filter opens a column on the right with various filtering options.

As for the keylogger's settings, Spector Pro for Mac has two windows for this purpose. Both of them have the settings grouped into categories and both of them are easy to use. In general, the interfaces of both settings windows and of a log viewer window are very good — they are not only thought out and easy to use, but also are very pleasant to look at. Well done, SpectorSoft!

OS Support

As for the supported operating systems, Spector Pro for Mac runs on all the versions of OS X starting from 10.5 Leopard.

Security

Access AuthorizationThe security of Spector Pro for Mac is almost great. The keylogger is perfectly hidden, protected by password and can be accessed by pressing a hotkey combination. It is impossible to access it by typing a secret keyword, yet doing this by pressing the hot keys should be enough. Unlike the majority of mac keyloggers taking part in our testing, Spector Pro for Mac allows not only showing the warning text to computer's users, but also its editing.

Unfortunately, just as the already mentioned majority of mac keyloggers Spector Pro for Mac also can't be configured to uninstall itself on a specified date.

Monitoring

KeystrokesSpector Pro for Mac is also very good at monitoring. It perfectly logs keychars, system keys, started applications, printed documents, system log on/off and inactivity time. As for file-activity monitoring, it is one of the keylogger's strongest points — all of the file-activities listed in our comparison are perfectly monitored by Spector Pro for Mac!

However, there is still something Spector Pro for Mac misses in this section, namely monitoring of mouse clicks, log on passwords, sounds and clipboard. Those of you who are in a need of a mac keylogger that is good at making screenshots will benefit the rich functionality for screenshot-making of Spector Pro for Mac. The keylogger will not only allow you to configure quality of images and an interval of their making, but will also show you the screenshots every time a mouse button is clicked (if configured properly, of course). Unfortunately, users of Spector Pro for Mac don't have an option of configuring the keylogger for making the screenshots of an active window only instead of the full screen.

Online Monitoring

Spector Pro for Mac is good not only in offline but in online monitoring also. During our tests it logged both sides of chats in all the messengers taking part in the testing except AOL, logged all the visited URLs in Safari and Firefox (but failed in Opera and Chrome) and intercepted both incoming and outgoing emails. Making a screenshot every time a new website is visited is one more feature that makes Spector Pro for Mac a keylogger that is a pleasure to use!

Reports

Program ActivitySpector Pro for Mac provides rich functionality for reports' making and filtering. The keylogger allows excluding users and applications from monitoring, setting maximum size of a log-file, configuring their auto-clearance and performing a search in them. Already mentioned filter allows setting the period of dates for logs' viewing, while the logs themselves contain various information including the events duration.

Unfortunately, despite all the reach functionality Spector Pro for Mac can't deliver the log-files by any of the means present in our testing, so you will need to have a physical access to the computer under monitoring every time you want to view the logs.

Other

Keyword AlertsJust as all the keyloggers for mac taking part in our testing, Spector Pro for Mac is available in English only. Another minus of Spector Pro for Mac in "Other" section is its inability to block the specified applications from starting.

As for the pluses, the keylogger can be configured to react to the keywords from a specified list, can work on schedule and can block the websites from opening.

The Bottom Line

Summing up we can say that Spector Pro for Mac is a powerful keylogger for mac with very handy and beautiful interface that will come in handy while performing home and employee monitoring.