A few days back I got the idea of figuring out how much time I was spending on different application while working. So I made this small console application. It's not perfect but it can give you a head start. So I am using the following three classes. There is no complex code but still i will try to explain it.
In this test app I am collecting the data for five applications, but you can always extend it.
  1. class Program
  2. {
  3. static void Main(string[] args)
  4. {
  5. ActiveApplicationPropertyThread activeWorker = new ActiveApplicationPropertyThread();
  6. Thread activeThread = new Thread(activeWorker.StartThread );
  7. activeThread.Start();
  8. Dictionary<string, Double> temp;
  9. while(true)
  10. {
  11. Console.WriteLine(activeWorker.AppInfo);
  12. if (activeWorker.activeApplicationInfomationCollector._focusedApplication.Keys.Count > 5)
  13. {
  14. temp = activeWorker.activeApplicationInfomationCollector._focusedApplication;
  16. break;
  17. }
  19. Thread.Sleep(1000);
  20. }
  22. foreach (var j in temp.Keys)
  23. {
  24. Console.WriteLine(j + " " + temp[j] / 1000);
  26. }
  27. }
    }
This is the main thread that is monitoring the application and checking if these applications is started and if it is, it will log it and start a time against it.
  1. public class ActiveApplicationPropertyThread
  2. {
  3. private bool _stopThread = true;
  4. private string _appName = "Idle";
  5. [DllImport("user32.dll")]
  6. static extern int GetForegroundWindow();
  7. [DllImport("user32")]
  8. private static extern UInt32 GetWindowThreadProcessId(Int32 hWnd, out Int32 lpdwProcessId);
  10. public ActiveApplicationInfomationCollector activeApplicationInfomationCollector;
  11. private string _justSentApplicationName = "";
  12. public ActiveApplicationPropertyThread()
  13. {
  14. activeApplicationInfomationCollector = new ActiveApplicationInfomationCollector();
  15. }
  17. public void StopThread()
  18. {
  19. _stopThread = false;
  20. }
  22. public void StartThread()
  23. {
  24. while(_stopThread)
  25. {
  26. ActiveAppName();
  28. if(_justSentApplicationName == "")
  29. {
  30. _justSentApplicationName = _appName;
  31. activeApplicationInfomationCollector.ApplicationFocusStart(_appName);
  32. }
  33. if(_justSentApplicationName != _appName )
  34. {
  35. activeApplicationInfomationCollector.ApplicationFocusEnd(_justSentApplicationName);
  36. activeApplicationInfomationCollector.ApplicationFocusStart(_appName);
  37. _justSentApplicationName = _appName;
  38. }
  40. Thread.Sleep(2000);
  41. }
  42. }
  44. public string AppInfo
  45. {
  46. get { return _appName; }
  47. }
  49. private Int32 GetWindowProcessID(Int32 hwnd)
  50. {
  51. Int32 pid = 1;
  52. GetWindowThreadProcessId(hwnd, out pid);
  53. return pid;
  54. }
  56. private void ActiveAppName()
  57. {
  58. Int32 hwnd = 0;
  59. hwnd = GetForegroundWindow();
  60. try
  61. {
  62. _appName = Process.GetProcessById(GetWindowProcessID(hwnd)).MainModule.ModuleName;
  63. }catch(Exception e)
  64. {
  66. }
  68. }
    }
This helper class is just collecting data for different applications and adding the total time being used.
  1. public class ActiveApplicationInfomationCollector
  2. {
  4. public DateTime _startTime;
  5. public Dictionary<string, Double> _focusedApplication;
  6. public ActiveApplicationInfomationCollector()
  7. {
  8. _focusedApplication = new Dictionary<string, Double>();
  9. }
  10. public void ApplicationFocusStart(string appName)
  11. {
  12. _startTime = DateTime.Now;
  13. if(!_focusedApplication.ContainsKey(appName ))
  14. {
  15. _focusedApplication.Add(appName, 0);
  17. }
  18. }
  19. public void ApplicationFocusEnd(string appName)
  20. {
  21. //end the timer and update the seconds
  22. TimeSpan elapsed = DateTime.Now - _startTime;
  23. _focusedApplication[appName] = _focusedApplication[appName] + elapsed.TotalMilliseconds ;
  24. }
  26. }