How to check if someone’s logged into your PC on Windows 10. How to check pc login history

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How To Check & Delete Usage History On Your Windows PC

Every time you use your computer, it tracks your activity. It tracks how long you have used the computer, when and for what purpose. It may not display these details externally, but they can be accessed from the system by anyone looking for them. If you’ve borrowed someone’s computer or sent it to be repaired in an untrusted location and want to see how the person you sent it to used it, you can easily access your computer’s usage history to see its latest usage information. You may want to use this to keep an eye on use by children or family members or for other personal reasons. Whatever the reason, there is a way to fix this problem and we are going to break it down step by step in this article.

Now that you know you can access your computer usage information, you need to know that this means someone can access your usage information and see how you are using your device. If you want to remove traces of your usage information so that anyone else who knows how to access that information cannot see your usage activity, you can also remove it. This is another thing that we will introduce step by step in this article. We will teach you how to keep an eye on device usage and how to be one step ahead in protecting your privacy when it comes to device usage history on Windows devices.

Checking Usage History

To check the usage history of a Windows computer, do the following:

1. Type “run” in the search box in the lower left corner of the screen and press Enter. You can also access this by pressing the Windows key and the R key simultaneously. Run the command prompt at the RUN command prompt.
2. Type “CMD” in the box next to “Open” and click “OK”. A command window will appear.
3. In the command prompt window, type “systeminfo” and press enter.
4. You can scroll down the information below and look at System Boot Time to see when your computer started up.

For more information, follow these steps:

1. Go back to the “run” window by searching for it in the search bar or pressing the Windows and R keys simultaneously. Launching Event Viewer from the RUN command line.
2. Enter “eventvwr.msc” in the field next to “Open:” and press “OK.”
3. The event viewer window will appear on the screen.
4. In the left directory pane, under Event Viewer (Local)> Windows Logs, click “System”. This will open a detailed system log. Here you will be able to see all recent activity on your computer, including any error messages, warnings, granted permissions or general information generated on your device. The date and time column will also indicate when exactly this event occurred.

Have you ever wondered who had access to your computer and when did it happen? In this guide, we’ll show you how to use Windows 10’s Audit feature to track logon attempts.

How to check if someone’s logged into your PC on Windows 10

Computer security is very useful to all of us, and a thorough knowledge of our security level can only help.

Maybe we have a nosy little lady at home, or maybe you’re a secret government security agent who needs to know their computer hasn’t been compromised.

The easiest way to do this is to see if someone has logged into your computer like modern digital Goldilocks, and Windows 10 provides security tools to make sure you can check your computer’s logon attempts, both successful and otherwise.

How to view login attempts on your Windows 10 PC

1. Open the Group Policy app by typing gpedit in the Cortana / search field.
2. In the Group Policy editor, navigate down the following path to go to the logon audit policy: Computer Configuration> Windows Settings> Security Settings> Local Policies> Audit Policy.
3. Look for login audits and double-click it.
4. A new submenu will open up. Choose both success and failure, which means if someone tries to sign in and fails, Windows will still keep track of the login.

1. Open the Event Viewer desktop program by typing “Event Viewer” in Cortana / Search box.
2. Select Windows Logs from the left menu panel.
3. Under Windows Logs, select Security.
4. You should now see a scrollable list of all security related events on your computer.
5. Note event 4624, which is a typical login. You can check the time, date, and account details to see who and when logged in if you suspect it’s not you.

PS: For Windows 10 Home users, you will only see successful login, and since Group Policy is not available for these devices, this cannot be configured. Learn how to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro here.

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If you are using Windows 10 Professional, you can also enable auditing of logon events in the Local Group Policy Editor. This will allow you to track which user accounts are logging in to Windows devices.

Check Windows 10 / 11 user login history Using Third-party Tools

Native audit logs are difficult to understand and too complex to be manually audited. Also, using the default Windows audit log is irrigation and must follow step by step to find the requested audit log information of individual users at a specific time. By using the tools below, you can log hundreds of login and logout information. So try these tools without hesitation.

a) TurnedOnTimesView: (Download: click here)

This is a tool that shows users the Windows 11/10/8/7 2008 / Vista logon / logoff times. It was developed by Nir Sofer.

b) LastActivityView: (Download: click here)
It is a simple tool for analyzing the operating system log and detecting the time range in which the computer is turned on. It was developed by Nir Sofer.

c) Event Log Explorer: (Download: click here)

d) ADaudit Plus

This software can perform Active Directory Audit, User Login / Logout Audit, File Server Audit. Performs audits throughout the enterprise.

e) LepideAuditor (Visit here)

The report details login and logout, including when and when users log in from what computer. You also get reliable and instant reports on network user login details.

f) User Lockout (visit here)

UserLock tracks, logs, and reports all user connection events to provide centralized auditing across the entire network system – far beyond what Microsoft includes in Windows Server and Active Directory audits.

g) WinLogOnView

WinLogOnView is Windows event logging software for Windows 7 / Vista / 8/10 operating system that analyzes OS security events and finds who logged in and out based on data / time. Information such as login ID, user name, computer, domain, login / logout time, duration, and network address are recorded. This information can later be exported to CSV, HTML, XML, and tab-delimited files.

Check Windows login History if Cleared all Logs

If someone who logged in to your system knows about Event Viewer, it will clear the entire Event Viewer log and you won’t be able to find the person who logged in previously. In this case, you can set the last login details when starting the system.

1 Press the key combination Win + R from the keyboard and type: regedit and press Enter.

2 Click “Yes”

The Registry Editor will open.

3 Paste the path below into the registry search box

4 Right-click System> New> DWORD (32-bit

5 Rename this new value to “DisplayLastLogonInfo”

6 Double-click “DisplayLastLoginInfo” and set the value to “1”.

7 Close the registry

If you want to see the effect, just restart your computer and as soon as you successfully login you will see a message as shown below.

You will receive information on both successful and unsuccessful signing attempts as shown above.

To disable this just remove the value of “DisplayLastLogonInfo” or you can just set this value of “DisplayLastLogonInfo” to “0”

Frequently asked questions

We can use Powershell to find out the last 5 login histories and the cmdlets are as follows:

Get-EventLog System – Source Microsoft-Windows-WinLogon – After (Get-Date). AddDays (-5) – computer name $ env: computer name

fig of the login history window for the last 5 days 10 and 11

A: You can view the user’s last login history by using the net user command at the command prompt as shown below.

Enter net user at the command prompt. This will bring up a list of all users. In my case, I have an Administrator and a user poude.

where admin is the user and you can clearly see the last login date and time. Replace any user displayed with net user and see the result.

If the user has no login history, it will display “Never” instead of the login date and time as shown below. Figa finding the last login history of a given user via the command line

Each solution allows for the application of unique policies for each employee. The policy will be enforced on every managed device they use, even when disconnected from the network.

Use Lepide Active Directory Auditor to audit User Logon/Logoff Events

By using Lepide Active Directory Auditor (part of the Lepide Data Security Platform), you can easily monitor user login and logout (avoiding the complexity of native auditing). The solution automatically collects login information from all added domain controllers. Its report provides detailed information about logon or logoff events, including when users logged in, from what computer, and when. You get accurate and instant reports on user login credentials on the web. The following screenshot shows a successful user login event captured by Lepide Active Directory Auditor:

Figure: User Login / Logout Success Report

The fastest way to track network activity and applications on your computer would be to do a self-install CurrentWare by installing BrowseReporter, CurrentWare server, CurrentWare console, and the CurrentWare client on the same device.

Enabling Active Directory auditing policies ^

The first task is to make sure that computers generate the necessary events in their event logs. To do this, you need to enable three AD Audit Advanced Policies: Logoff Auditing, Logon Auditing, and Auditing Other Logon / Logoff Events. Together, these three policies provide for all common logon and logoff events. In addition, the policy also gets workstation lock / unlock and even RDP connect / disconnect events. This ensures that we receive all session start / stop events.

Enabling Advanced AD Audit Policies

As you can see in the screenshot, I decided to create a Group Policy Object (GPO) called User Session History and set everything to Success.

Defining session start and stop events ^

As each computer receives this GPO, it will start generating several different event IDs that you should be concerned about. It is important to match each of these events with the starting or ending event. Once defined, you can adjust each one in the event logs and calculate the time difference to get your exact total session time.

Event	Event ID	Event log	Start / stop session
Log in	4624	Security	Beginning
Log out	4647	Security	Stop
Activation	6005	System	Stop
Reconnecting RDP sessions	4778	Security	Beginning
Disconnect RDP session	4779	Security	Stop
Unlocked	4800	Security	Beginning
Blocked	4801	Security	Stop

All of these events are self-explanatory, except for one that I should pay attention to. You will notice that I have a startup event with event id 6005 marked as session stop event. Why? Because we will use this event identifier when the computer suddenly shuts down without warning. Think of cases where the power goes out or someone just pulls the cord. It is not possible to come up with a “logout” time. The best we can do is find out when the user has turned on the next time. It is not an exact representation, but it is the closest we will be able to get.

Unfortunately, if you or another user have browsed in private browsing mode, such as Chrome’s Incognito mode or Edge’s InPrivate mode, you won’t be able to see Internet browsing activity for that period using this method.

Software to Check Recent Activity on Employee Computers

Hi my name is Neel Lukka, Managing Director of CurrentWare.

Today I am pleased to present you the CurrentWare web console.

You can use the web console to manage CurrentWare policies and run reports from a web browser on any computer on the network.

The web console and CurrentWare server are hosted by your company, giving you full control of the solution.

The CurrentWare package includes 4 solutions

1. AccessPatrol: Device Control Software
2. BrowseControl: Internet filtering software
3. BrowseReporter: Employee computer monitoring software
4. And enPowerManager: remotely manage your computer’s power

Each solution allows for the application of unique policies for each employee. The policy will be enforced on every managed device they use, even when disconnected from the network.

Let’s start with AccessPatrol

With AccessPatrol, you can restrict various peripherals including USB mass storage devices, phones, and Bluetooth

Add company-approved peripherals to the allowed list

Receive device activity reports on demand, according to a set schedule or when certain events occur

You can also block files from being transferred to USB devices by file name or extension

With BrowseControl you can control internet access based on URLs and content categories

Block users from running specific applications

Schedule unique allow or block lists

And block network ports

Let’s move on to BrowseReporter

With BrowseReporter, you can see reports on employee computer activity, including Internet activity, bandwidth consumption, and application usage

These reports can be generated on demand, according to a fixed schedule or in the event of specific events

You can also schedule activity tracking to stop employee monitoring during scheduled off-hours, such as breaks.

Finally, with enPowerManager, you can generate reports on power status and login / logout times

Start up, shut down, restart, standby and hibernate computers on demand or on a schedule

Configure advanced power policies for notebook computers

And provide end users with a warning message before their computers shut down

The Web Console is available to anyone with a CurrentWare subscription. If you want to try the web console yourself, you can download a free trial version at CurrentWare.com/Download

Want to monitor computer activity on another computer? With CurrentWare employee computer monitoring software, computer activity monitoring is as simple as installing the solution on employees’ computers and creating reports on their computer activity from the convenient central console.

• track your web browsing including time spent on each website, exact URL, website title, and more
• Monitor app usage to see who is playing games or using unauthorized software
• track idle time to see how active your employees are on their computers
• Monitor your bandwidth usage to see who’s slowing down your network with Netflix, Twitch, and Sports Streaming

Table of Contents

If you’re concerned that someone else has used your computer, Windows includes free tools that you can use to check recent activity on your computer. If you discover events that happened when you are not using your computer, it may indicate that the computer was used without your knowledge.

Use Windows Event Viewer to Check Computer Events

Note: When viewing the logs in Windows Event Viewer, you will likely see several event logs with errors that have occurred on your computer. This is perfectly normal and is not an immediate cause for concern if your computer is running fine – the application logs every event on your computer, including minor startup and processing errors that are likely to have resolved itself.

Windows Event Viewer is a utility included with the Windows operating system. It is intended for use by system administrators to view event logs on local and remote computers, but can also inform you when the computer has been turned on. If your computer was on when you were not using it, it may be that someone else was using your computer.

If you are using Windows 10 Professional, you can also enable auditing of logon events in the Local Group Policy Editor. This will allow you to track which user accounts are logging in to Windows devices.

If you want to control logon events for multiple computers, you can use the enPowerManager logon / logout trace report to monitor these computer activities at a large scale.

How to View Recently Edited Files

Viewing the recently edited files on your Windows computer will allow you to see what files have been opened on your computer. If you find files that were recently modified when you are not using your computer, it may be that someone else was on your computer.

1. Press the Windows key on your keyboard – the Windows symbol is in the lower-left corner of most keyboards, between the CTRL and ALT keys.
2. Type Run – this will highlight the Run application in the search box
3. Press Enter to run the Run application
4. In the popup, enter Recent
5. This will bring up a window that shows you all the files that have been recently edited on your computer. There are probably unknown files with no icons – they are probably temporary files and not cause for concern.
6. You can sort items by last modified date by clicking the Modified Date field at the top. If you don’t see this, right-click the column headers and select Date Modified from the drop-down menu.

To further protect sensitive data, AccessPatrol allows you to block file transfers based on file names and extensions. This ensures that even permitted devices cannot transmit confidential data.

How to enable logon auditing policy on Windows 10

If you are using Windows 10 Pro, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor to enable the “Control Login Events” policy to track success and login attempts to features on your device.

Important: Group Policy is not available in Windows 10 Home, but interestingly, at least the login control for successful attempts is enabled by default in this edition. If you’re using Windows 10 Home, you can skip these steps and go straight to the Event Viewer instructions.

1. Use the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to open a Run command.
2. Enter gpedit.msc and click OK to open the Local Group Policy Editor.

Browse the following path:

Computer Configuration> Windows Settings> Security Settings> Local Policies> Audit Policy

On the right, double-click the Logon Audit Policy.

Check the success and failure options.

After following these steps, Windows 10 will track every attempt to log into your device, whether it was successful or not.

If you are no longer interested in tracking logins on your computer, you can follow the same instructions, but in step 5, uncheck the Success and Failure options.

How to see who logged into Windows 10

After you set up Windows 10 to audit logon events, you can use Event Viewer to see who logged in to your computer and when it happened.

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Event Viewer, click on the highest result to start the experience.

Browse the following path:

Event Viewer> Windows Logs> Security

Double-click the event ID 4624, which indicates a successful logon event.

Quick Tip: On Windows 10 Pro, you can also double-click the event ID 4625 to see failed attempts, or the event ID 4634 to see when the user has logged out.

You will find a lot of useful information in the event log, but you can simply look in the Logged section to find out when the event happened, and under the ‘General’ tab, look in the New Login section to find the account that has been granted permission on your computer.

Using filters

The Security page logs multiple login attempts, including from background services, so you may need to review several events until you find the information you are looking for. However, you can speed up the process by using the Event Viewer’s filtering feature to create a custom view to see only login attempts.

Select Create Custom View.

In the “All event IDs” field, enter 4624.

After following these steps, you will be able to find out faster who and when someone has successfully logged into your device.

While our focus in this guide is on Windows 10, you can also refer to these instructions to track device sign-in in previous versions, including Windows 8.1 and Windows 7.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful Windows 10 articles, coverage, and answers to frequently asked questions, visit the following resources:

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