Recovering Deleted Internet History

Hi Guys,

I have a feeling that my little brther (11 years old) is viewing sites that he shouldn't be! Whenever me or my mom go into his room he goes red and presses the Esc key so we know something is going on, we even put the IE Content Controls on but he obviously knows how to get round it.

Is there any way we can recover his deleted history/ temporary internet files/ cookies so we can know for sure what has been going on? He uses Microsoft Internet Explorer and I have heard of programs such as Pasco and Web Historian but I need something that will run covertly on his system. Our computers aren't linked up so we would need to install it on his computer. I was also thinking of a Key Logger maybe but again it would need to be covert and I'm obviously not sure how well any of these programs work.

Please can anyone help/ advise?

PS: I'm not exactly an IT buff so an "Idiots Guide To..." would be much appreciated!

Many thanks

Rin x

You could try this keylogger: http://majorgeeks.com/SC-KeyLog_d4136.html

It's supposed to be "invisible" as it states, though I have never tried it so I don't know.

Or if you are real good, you can view the ntuser.dat file while logged in as a different user. It is stored in his documents and settings folder.

Just do what we did. We moved the kids computer into the kitchen & situated the monitor so we could see what he was doing. This put his back to us so he never knew when we were watching. That should slow him down some. It also prevents children from becoming isolated from the rest of the family. They are present even if they are ignoring you all the time.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the responses. Ok my brother's computer is in his room so we can't move it as we don't want to make him feel alienated or embarrassed. Besides there is a lot of time that we can't watch everything he's doing and I don't want him to feel like he is under constant scrutiny as that will cause him to mistrust us. Yes I want to log what he's doing but I don't want him to be aware of it lol! Yes I know that's bad but once we can see the extent of things then we can help.

Sterling_Aug: I am not that great at using computers so I would need to know where I can view the ntuser.dat files, what progrmas opens/ views them and how I do it, I'm not completely inept just not as good with computers as you guys :) your help is much appreciated.

Thank you for the link to the key logger, I will be checking that out later, I think I'll get my friend to test it out for me then let you all know what it's like.

Use this for covert logging of everything.

There will be no indication that it has been installed in the Add/Remove applet and it will not show as a process running using the Task Manager.

It is excellent and worth the money.

XPCSpy Pro Version V3.1 (lifetime free upgrades) - I use it if families need to find out about children’s actives, whether instant messaging, email, web browsing, the lot.

It can even see a covert email to you with a log file of user history.

http://tinyurl.com/lc0f

Main site:
http://www.x-pcsoft.com/

That sure looks a good program ...it has a 15 day trial .. full features
After 15 days, it will still monitor, but only for 30 mins at a time
For $39.95 with lifetime upgrades, that is very reasonably priced

Yes it is Bruce a worthwhile addition to have on hand. Although I don't need it myself I wanted to acquaint myself with surveillance software in case a scenario, such as the one above, came across.

I have spoken to the developers and they are good people. They do not want their software to be used nefariously but to be used say, to ensure a child is not being groomed by a paedophile etc.

There are so many features and it has just been developed so that it is undetectable in covert mode even more so.

I purchased the Pro version and it has a massive feature set. It can monitor and intercept many programs.

You can even have a message come up on boot which you can write yourself, that says, for example,

"Mum and Dad have installed monitoring software for your safety. Behave! Love Mum and Dad".

So it does not have to be covert it can act as a deterrent too by being overt. It worked on my friend’s family machine.

These developers need our support otherwise without a purchase a great piece of software will not be developed further. This approach goes for many programs.

If you warn a person that monitoring software has been installed on their computer can't they just go to windows explorer, look for the likely program and delete the folder?

Yes it is possible but it depends on their knowledge firstly and lastly, the program I mentioned does everything it can not to be detected. That also includes the install file in Program Files.

Try it and see if you can defect it. If it takes you time and some effort then it is unlikely that they will figure it out.

Moreover, you can also mention that to tamper with the program that monitors the machine effectively prohibits them access in future.

At the end of the day you can only do so much. If they go against your expressed wishes then they must face the consequences. It’s as simple as that.

G: Thank you so much for your messages, it's really appreciated. The only trouble is that Norton keeps detecting Key Loggers and deleting them as they are spyware, I really like the look of the XPCSpy Pro Version V3.1 but don't want to buy it if Norton will detect it and want to keep this covert so my brother doesn't know we are monitoring him so if I uninstall Norton he'll know what's going on, especially if it keeps finding it and deleting it.

Please help?!

Thank you so much

Rin xx

In Norton as in most Antivirus programs there are ways to
Exclude either a certain File Type or a certain Folder from
the antivirus scan engine .. That way it won' t delete your
program or file.

There will be files of XPCSpy Pro that will need to be excluded now from Norton's exclusion list. I don't use Norton but the process is the same for other AVs too.

Also there may be files of XPCSpy Pro that have not been flagged by Norton or any other malware or AV prog.

The best policy is to contact tech support, they are very helpful, and they give you the list of files required now to be excluded and any in use in the future that AV prog flag that may need to be added to any malware and/or AV exclusion list.

Hope you like XPCSpy Pro as it is really good :)

Thank you so very much, I have emailed XPC Spy Pro so I will let you know what they say in case anyone else is having this problem :-)

Thank you all so very much

Rin xx