Center Clicks (aka the Red Dot)​

If you’re a gamer, you might’ve seen the below result in the mouse heat map after playing a game. I won’t bore you with the details; just know that sometimes a game locks the mouse pointer to the center of your screen.

the Red Dot.

With help from our community, we’ve added logic to ignore these center clicks. They won’t appear in the heat map, but they still count against your click statistics. You’ll also still see them in the per-application click stats.

Remote Desktop & Virtual Machine Support​

Due to the explosion in remote workers, this feature has been requested a lot. Keys and clicks inside Remote Desktop (RDP) sessions and Virtual Machine consoles are more challenging to measure than on “regular” computers. We’re excited that v4.2 now supports RDP and VM sessions to count statistics while remote working. This is a Premium feature.

Network Stats​

There are two fixes in v4.2 relating to network stats. On Windows, the network measurements could sometimes stall when you wake your computer from sleep. A few changes within Windows could cause the client to miss the “hey, we’re waking up” messages and not reactivate the network measurement engine.

On macOS, the client needs system permissions to be allowed to measure the network traffic. Sometimes macOS overrules these changes (i.e., during upgrades), causing WhatPulse to stop measurements. We’ve changed how the client sets these permissions, which is now persistent. A new installer runs during the WhatPulse installation that guarantees correct permissions. Check out this help article for more details.

Running as Administrator on Windows​

Similar to games locking the mouse pointer to the center of the screen, sometimes applications that run elevated as admin lock us out from counting the keys and clicks. This is why we’ve had the setting called “Run as Administrator,” which elevates the WhatPulse client to also run as administrator allowing it to count the input from apps that would’ve otherwise blocked it. Due to a rising number of applications that block the client and most Pulsers enabling the setting, “Run as Administrator” is now enabled by default.

There is (or was) one drawback with enabling the setting, every time the client starts, you had to approve it.

Permission popup while running as Administrator

Thanks to a suggestion from ThanoslBsl, v4.2 won’t show this popup when you start your computer. It does this by adding a scheduled task that runs the client on system start, meaning that the first time you run the client — you’ll still see the prompt. But after the first run, you won’t have to see that popup anymore. 🙌

Manual Computer Profile Upload​

When you click on a computer name in your profile on whatpulse.org, you’ll get a profile page that shows the information about that computer. Things like operating system, memory, processor, and the stats for that computer. WhatPulse checks your computer settings regularly for changes and sends those changes to the website to show on the profile page, but if you don’t want to wait you can now trigger an upload from the Settings page:

Uploading your computer information

Updating​

Version 4.2 is now available when you use the Check for Updates function, and you can download it from: https://whatpulse.org/downloads

New Weekly Update Email​

It’s my favorite email of the week, telling me how I did in the last week. Building on additional data the software is collecting like application stats and uptime details, I’m excited to reveal the new weekly update:

The first thing you’ll notice is the chart that shows how many hours per day you’ve spent behind your computer. Cool, right? The second thing is my favorite; the top five applications you’ve used this week. Awesome. It also helps that the new design looks fantastic. 😄

WhatPulse 4.1 fuels this data, so make sure you’ve upgraded. Without it, you’ll miss the chart and application list. Per-application statistics is also a Premium feature, make sure you subscribe.

Coming to your inbox next Thursday!

New Security Improvements​

We’ve always focused on security at WhatPulse, from the granularity in selecting which statistics you’re tracking, the privacy options on our website, and the backend security. With this update we’re introducing two additional security controls for your accounts.

Two-Factor Authentication​

First, an additional two-factor authentication method; text messages. We’ve supported two-factor authentication with an app (i.e., 1Password, or Google Authenticator) for a while, but not everyone has one of those apps.

With text message two-factor authentication, you first log in with your email and password. Then a six-digit code is sent to your phone, with which you can log fully into the website.

Set up two-factor authentication here, with either an authenticator app or the new text messages. You can find a step-by-step guide here.

Confirmations of Account Changes​

Significant account changes now require confirmation. When you change your accounts username or email address an email will be sent to your current email address requesting you confirm these changes.

New Help Center​

As our products are growing, being able to find the right documentation is essential. To make that easier, we’ve overhauled the Help Center into a brand new site.

The search bar is your friend when you’re looking for something specific. If you’re new to WhatPulse, a Getting Started series explains the basics. Check it out here: https://help.whatpulse.org

We’ll start integrating the new Help Center into our website and software client soon, giving you contextual help where it’s needed.

AppImage for Linux (& SSL fixes)​

Thanks to the hard work of Krzysztof, we now have an AppImage download available! This is in addition to the Snap and gives Linux users flexibility in choosing which format works for their system. Head over to the downloads to get it!

Keep in mind that due to the nature of the AppImage and Snap, unpulsed and application network traffic does not work. We’re working on an architecture that solves this in a future release.

Design Updates​

After introducing the dark theme in v4.0, I’ve used your feedback to tweak a few things, like redesigning the drop downs, making the buttons softer, giving the settings more room to breathe, you can read them easier. There are more subtle changes that make the client easier to use.

You can see a glimpse in the below screenshot.

Application Search​

Did you know you can look at keyboard heat maps per application? There’s a drop down on the keyboard heat map page where you can select an application. You can now search for an application to make it much easier to find the application you’re interested in.

But wait, there’s more..​

We’ve also started to translate the facts that are at the bottom of each page. There’s also cool new statistic (uptime per hour) that will play a role in an upcoming change to the weekly updates and in v4.2. For this and more, check out the full release notes here.

New Design​

Looks aren’t everything, but after years of the same, the client is now sporting a fresh and modern design:

Left: Keyboard heat map with dark mode — Right: Mouse heat map with light mode

Here’s a quick summary of the design changes:

• Dark Mode! Choose between Dark and Light Mode in the settings.

• Replaced the carousel for sub-pages with tabs. This exposes all sub-pages at a glance, so you can easily see what’s available.

• Better indicate when specific stats are disabled

• A new installer & update system that works the same on Windows and macOS. (Linux tbd) – There’s a new program added to the WhatPulse installation directory called WhatPulseMaintenanceTool. We’ll use it to install, update, and uninstall the client. – Update notifications now only happen within the client. You’ll see a banner at the top of the window saying there’s an update available.

The new update alert

We love how the new design and dark mode turned out, and we hope you do too! 💖

Application Uptime History​

Ever wonder how long you’ve been in an application this week, or month? So did we! In version 3.6 and below, the application uptime was accumulative and you could only see uptime for specific dates by exporting it to CSV. We’ve now added the time selection on the application uptime, so you can select the most used date ranges, or even select a custom date range to see how long you’ve used an application.

Application Uptime History set on the last month view

Network Improvements​

Many of you have a great internet connection with high speeds. During high download or upload traffic, the 3.x versions could be inaccurate. We’ve improved the integration with npcap on Windows and the native pcap on macOS, to optimize for higher speeds.

The result: when downloading with 200Mb/s or more, the accuracy has gone from ~80% with 3.x, to ~98% accuracy with 4.0. 🚀

Automatic Bug Reports and Usage Data​

Starting WhatPulse version 4.0, the client can automatically collect and send us anonymized data about bugs and usage. This information is important to us for improving your experience and helps us prioritize features and bug fixes. Data collection is controlled by the setting called Send bug and usage reports. If you’d like to learn more about what’s collected, how it’s sent to us, and how we use it, please check out this Help Center article.

Our Privacy Policy has been updated to mention this data, as well.

New Settings​

There are a few new settings available, let’s walk through them:

• Back by popular demand, a setting called Pause notifications. This lets you mute all notifications coming from the client (i.e., successful pulse).

• The ‘Open Window on Startup’ setting is now also available on the General Settings tab, instead of just the Overview tab.

• There’s also a select box for the client theme. This is where you can choose between the light or dark theme.

New Languages​

We’ve added support for Arabic, Bulgarian, Spanish, and Polish. This makes a total of 12 available languages. These updates are driven by our awesome community; thank you to Ammar, Rado, Inktest, and Krzysiek!

Is your language not available and do you want to help translate the client? Find out how here.

Bug & Stability Fixes​

A bunch! Here are all of them, just in case you’ve run into one of these.

• GeoIP is a database that links network traffic to certain countries. WhatPulse 3.x had a few issues with handling GeoIP, which could cause the client to crash instantly after starting. The GeoIP database itself was corrupted in that cause, which the client didn’t handle well. Now it does.

• Fixed a client crash when your Windows or macOS username has non-Unicode characters in it. (i.e. РПК)

• Fixed high CPU and unresponsiveness, which sometimes happened on Windows after waking up after sleep when networking is enabled.

• Fixed fact statistics sometimes being displayed as “%VAR%”

• Fixed the %InstantKeyRate% and %InstantClickRate% Geek Window variables. These were showing 2x the actual value.

• Improved the way applications are uploaded to the website so that they show up faster

• An online database restore now downloads to your system’s temp directory. This fixes restores when using portable mode.

Conclusion​

We’re really excited about WhatPulse 4.0 and hope you like it as much as we do. Upgrade using the built-in updater, or download 4.0 from here.

Thank you to everyone that participated in the beta, 4.0 is the most extensively tested and stable release yet because of you. 💪

Introduction​

Hi, I’m Ammar (or AA0000). I’m from Syria, and I’m 21. Back in 2017, I used to have way too much free time on my hands. I spent a lot of that time playing Minecraft, managing servers and creating plugins for them, texting with friends, playing Piano Tiles 2 and Dancing Line, learning HTML and CSS, and helping others with their servers on Discord, Slack, HelpDesk, and a forum, 11–13h a day, every day, all on my phone, Sony M2, for about two years.

I also used to play a game called Fast Type. It’s a typing test thing but for mobile, and I used to type relatively fast with just two fingers. The average typing speed on a PC with 10 fingers is about 40 words per minute (WPM). I used to type 78 WPM with just my thumbs, on mobile, and the world record for that was 93 WPM, I wanted to beat that record.

All of this was just too much for just two fingers. Especially when you don’t rest, in addition to me being quite underweight back then, I started to develop Tendonitis.

What Happened​

It started with my thumbs stiffening after typing and making a loud noise when I tried to move them afterward, then it developed into pain. With time the pain started becoming more severe relentlessly and it started to last a lot longer, even after not using my thumbs. I went to a pharmacy and they told me that I just needed to rest. After seeing 5 different doctors over 4 years, while the pain only got worse, I have only been prescribed pain killers. Not knowing that it was only painkillers, I continued using my hands. I started doing freelance translating, which only made things worse. I had to start monitoring my hands’ usage to reduce it.

Start Monitoring​

When looking for programs that could give me the right data, I came across WhatPulse around 2020. Ever since, I used to look at my PC usage every single day to see how much I used the keyboard and mouse, which programs I used the most, and then try to reduce my usage and time on those programs.

To make things easier, I started inputting the total keys into a sheet every day to compare my usage over time. But that was a lot of work, and I wanted an easier method. That’s where WhatPulse’s export wizard helped me out. It can export the usage grouped by different periods and can go as granular as per hour:

Export Wizard

It is a Premium feature, and due to super low salary rates in Syria (around $36 a month), I couldn’t afford it, so I made a deal with the developer to translate WhatPulse to Arabic in exchange for the membership. After debating at what granularity I wanted to monitor my usage, I decided on daily and then I made a Google Sheet containing all of the exported stats and created this chart off that data:

Note that I wanted to list all of my data history, and the WhatPulse dashboards don’t go back that far yet. If you want to try this yourself, you can find the Google Sheet here.

In Nov 2021, right after that giant blue spike, the pain started to get severely out of hand, and I saw a very expensive specialist. They told me I could be suffering from Myopathy and they gave me vitamins and supplements, not just pain killers. After starting these medications, I wanted to compare my usage over time to see if they helped me more than the painkillers.

And indeed they did; you can see my usage progressively spiking in the end! Of course, while keeping the pain under control.

Nowadays, I’m at 130 words per minute on PC using Dvorak, and I’m trying to reach a healthy weight and overcome myopathy. I’m also planning on buying an ergonomic keyboard in the future, like the ZSA Moonlander or Kinesis 360, and see if I can improve my productivity even further.

Regards, Ammar.

Conclusion​

Ammar’s story is one of the reasons WhatPulse exists; to monitor your productivity in different scenarios. I hope you found his story inspirational just like I did.

Do you have a similar story? I’d love to share it. Contact me at martijn@whatpulse.org.