Install guide · Windows
Unzip it, click past one Windows warning, and sign in. Two minutes — there is no installer and nothing to grant.
Read this first
This is monitoring software and you should know what it does before installing it. The app shows you this list again on first launch, generated from the settings your organization actually has switched on — trust that screen over this page.
Records
Never records
The activity percentage is counted, not read. The app asks Windows only for the header of each input event — which device it came from — and never retrieves the part that says which key was pressed. Nothing is captured until you sign in and tick the acknowledgement. The tray icon is always visible and cannot be switched off, not by you and not by an administrator. You can view everything recorded about you in the dashboard, and redact any screenshot.
Install
Step 2 is the one that looks alarming. It is expected, and the reason is explained below.
Right-click NiftyTimer-windows-pilot.zip in your Downloads folder and choose Extract All…. Put the folder somewhere it can stay — your user folder is ideal. Do not run it from inside the zip: Windows unpacks that to a temporary folder that gets cleared, and the app would lose its settings and any work it had not yet uploaded.
Updates replace this folder in place, so moving it later is fine — just move the whole folder, not the .exe on its own.
Run NiftyTimer.exe. Windows shows a blue box saying “Windows protected your PC.” Click More info, then Run anyway.
This appears because the build is not yet code-signed, not because anything is wrong with it. SmartScreen warns about any application it has not seen enough copies of before — a certificate is what buys reputation, and this pilot does not have one yet. You should see this warning exactly once. If you see it on a later launch, the app was replaced; check with us before clicking through.
A window asks for the email and password we issued you. After signing in you are shown exactly what your organization has switched on, and you have to tick to acknowledge it. Nothing is recorded until you do — not screenshots, not activity, not app names. That gate is not skippable, and there is no administrator override.
Nifty Timer lives in the tray, next to the clock. Windows often hides new tray icons behind the ^ arrow — click it, then drag Nifty Timer down onto the taskbar so it is always visible.
Worth doing. The icon is how you can tell at a glance whether the clock is running, and it is the only control you need day to day. Nothing in the app can hide it.
Worth knowing
Both clients record the same things and feed the same dashboard. Three differences are worth knowing before you compare notes with a colleague on a Mac.
If something goes wrong
The tray icon is not there
Check the hidden-icons arrow (^) first — that is where Windows puts new tray icons. If it is genuinely absent, open Task Manager and look for NiftyTimer.exe under Details. If the process is running but has no icon, restart the app; if Windows Explorer restarted, the icon comes back on its own.
The clock will not start
The most common cause is that you are already tracking on another machine. The server allows one running entry per person, so the app says so and leaves the clock stopped. Stop the timer on the other machine first.
Antivirus flagged it
An unsigned application that watches for keyboard and mouse activity is a shape that some corporate security tools flag on sight. The app counts input events without ever retrieving what was typed — it does not install a keyboard hook — but that distinction is not one a scanner makes. Tell us rather than adding an exclusion yourself.
Time is missing from the dashboard
The app keeps everything on disk until the server confirms it, so an outage delays uploads rather than losing them. Open the tray menu — it shows how many records are still waiting. If that number is stuck for more than a few minutes while you are online, tell us.