ScreenTime Assistant
A transparent screen-time and activity log for a child’s Windows PC, with daily limits and a family dashboard.
Z
· v2026.09
Overview
ScreenTime Assistant is a family & home app for Windows, made by Z. A transparent screen-time and activity log for a child’s Windows PC, with daily limits and a family dashboard. It’s made for Parents who want to see, and gently limit, how a child’s Windows computer is actually used, without spyware. The latest version is 2026.09, released Sep 10, 2026. It was built with help from Claude Code.
ScreenTime Assistant (16winnet) is a Windows desktop tool for parents. It records how the family computer is used through standard system APIs: the foreground window, idle time and session notifications. It does not log keystrokes or take screenshots.
I built it for our own home PC. It's a monitoring tool, not spyware: the dashboard is open to the whole family at http://127.0.0.1:8777, and it works best when the child knows it's running.
What it records
- Sign-in, sign-out, lock, unlock, sleep and wake times
- How long each app is in the foreground, minus idle time. While a video or online class is playing sound, it still counts as in use.
- Websites visited, parsed from window titles or optionally read from the address bar via UI Automation
- Daily and weekly totals by category: study, games, video, social, other
Limits
Set a daily limit per category, for example games 60 minutes and video 45 minutes. When a limit is hit, it can just remind or also close the window. Changing limits, clearing history or stopping the recorder needs an admin password.
Hard to switch off
Autostart uses Windows scheduled tasks that only an administrator can change, not the child's own Run key. A watchdog relaunches the recorder within minutes, and after every wake and unlock. The installer also clears the Task Scheduler defaults that used to kill the recorder after sleep or on battery.
Optional cloud sync
Several PCs can push daily aggregates to Cloudflare D1, and a parent can open a cloud dashboard from anywhere. Category rules live in the cloud, so reclassifying an app never needs a new build. Sync is off by default, and data stays in local SQLite unless you turn it on.
Why people use it
Made for: Parents who want to see, and gently limit, how a child’s Windows computer is actually used, without spyware.
No keylogging, no screenshots
Only foreground window, idle time and session events, all through standard Windows APIs.
Counts real use
Idle time is subtracted, but a playing video or online class still counts.
Daily category limits
Remind, or close the window, once games or video time runs out.
Hard for kids to kill
Admin-only scheduled tasks plus a watchdog that relaunches after sleep and unlock.
Family dashboard
A local web dashboard with daily and weekly views, open to everyone at home.
Optional cloud sync
Multiple PCs roll up to one Cloudflare dashboard parents can check from anywhere.
Version history
-
v2026.09 Sleep-proof recorder
- Recorder survives sleep: fixed the Task Scheduler power defaults that stopped it on battery or after 72 hours
- Watchdog no longer mistakes sleep for a hang
- Time is recorded by the clock shown on screen, unaffected by the PC’s time-zone setting
- Videos with sound no longer count as idle
- Cloud timeline shows the window title column
- Dashboard shows how long ago each machine last reported
Dev notes
How Z built ScreenTime Assistant: progress, problems, and working with AI.
No dev notes published yet.
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