Through our working lives, we go through numerous computers and laptops. Perhaps you've changed jobs, and you've been given a shiny new Apple MacBook. Or maybe you've upgraded your battlestation at home with a custom-built gaming masterpiece. Either way, your old and unused devices are still sitting in your WhatPulse account and profile. Introducing: Archived Computers

Organize your unused devices with the new Archived Computers feature

You can now log in to your WhatPulse account and archive any computers you are no longer using. These devices will still be available in your profile, dashboard, and stats, but you won't be able to pulse to them. They'll sit in a shiny new Archived Computers section on your profile.

Additionally, archived computers will not count towards your 3-computer limit if you are not currently a premium subscriber.

Pro Tip: Premium users can have unlimited computers attached to their profile without ever needing to archive. Upgrade here.

How to archive your computers on WhatPulse​

Archiving your computers is super-easy! Just follow these steps:

• Log into your account on the WhatPulse website
• Head to Computers on the left hand menu
• You'll see a checkbox to the left of each Computer. Check the box for the one(s) you want to archive
• Click the Archive button at the top of the page
• You'll get a warning pop-up that you will no longer be able to pulse from these Computers. Click Archive
• Those computers will now be visible towards the bottom of the page in a new Archived Computers section.

Pro Tip: If you want to archive just one computer, you can click the Edit icon on the far right of the page for that device and change its name at the same time as using the toggle to archive it.

Archive a single computer and edit it's name at the same time

And that's it! Just another way to manage your computers and productivity with WhatPulse.

Happy Pulsing.

There are significant improvements in application handling. Previously, it was possible for applications not to appear on your computer profiles online, but this issue has been resolved. Additionally, the %TodayUptime% has been added to the stats available in the Geek Window, representing today’s uptime.

Other improvements include automatic sizing of the Geek Window, allowing for it to be made smaller, and automatic online database backups for Premium users. Previously, backups only occurred when the client was starting up, but now, they will also be created weekly when the client is running continuously.

For users on macOS 13.1 and above, there was an issue with the WhatPulseMaintenanceTool.app being blocked from running by macOS. Unfortunately, users will need to reinstall the client to receive new updates.

Privacy Policy Update​

Our commitment to user privacy remains as strong as ever, and that’s why we’ve removed Google Analytics and brought in Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics service. No cookies are used and no personal data — not even an IP address or browser user agent — is stored.

We’ve also added Paddle as a new payment processor. Review our privacy policy here.

Paddle for WhatPulse Premium​

Lastly, we’re also excited to introduce Paddle as our new payment provider for Premium subscriptions and one-time purchases. With invoicing support in 28 currencies, it’s now easier than ever to get your premium membership and access all the incredible features WhatPulse Premium has to offer.

Remember, upgrading to WhatPulse 5.2 before March 16th will ensure uninterrupted pulsing. As always, we welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have. Thank you for being part of the WhatPulse community!

We’ve added new stats in this release: mouse scrolls and distance moved. The mouse details page is completely redesigned to show off the new metrics. Scrolls and distance are also available on the website, including rankings and per-application stats.

Ever wondered how long you’ve been behind your computer this week? The new Computer Uptime page answers this question beautifully.

There are now also hourly mouse coordinate exports for Premium members, Geek Window customization is improved, and many tweaks that make WhatPulse easier to use.

We’ve also added support for macOS Ventura (13.0), and there’s a brand new client for Apple Silicon chips next to the existing Intel client. This’ll improve performance on Apple’s M1/M2 processors. WhatPulse also won’t require Rosetta anymore.

Before I dive into the WhatPulse 5.0 details, we’re also launching our yearly premium promotion to celebrate the start of the holiday season! Redeem the code HOLIDAY2022 at this link to get three months of free Premium.

Now, on with the WhatPulse 5.0 details!

New Stats: Mouse Scrolls and Distance​

Ever wondered how far you move your mouse across your monitors? Wonder no more! WhatPulse 5.0 measures mouse distance and translates it into kilometers and miles (depending on your location). Using the same historical recording as current stats (keys, clicks, etc.), you can see how far your mouse travels during the workweek compared to your gaming sessions. 😉

The Mouse page has been redesigned to fit the new stats, and you can switch between the heat map page and the details page easily:

New mouse heat map and detail pages

Additionally, we also measure mouse scrolls in every direction: up, down, left, and right.

Both scrolls and distance are available throughout the WhatPulse software and website. Put them on your Geek Window, export the data, look at your global rank on the website, and see in which applications you move the most.

MacOS Ventura (13.0) and Apple Silicon Support​

Apple released macOS Ventura (13.0) a few weeks ago, and WhatPulse 5.0 now fully supports it. There is now also a different download to support Apple Silicon processors. Up until now, the WhatPulse software was built for Intel processors, and while the Intel software ran pretty well on Apple’s M1 and M2 processors, it depended on Rosetta. That could impact performance and ease of use.

If you have a Mac with an Apple Silicon processor, please reinstall WhatPulse by removing the current version and downloading the Apple Silicon version here: https://whatpulse.org/downloads/

New Computer Uptime Chart​

First appearing in the Weekly Updates and Dashboard for the uptime throughout your entire account, the client now also displays the uptime of the last eight days in the redesigned Computer Uptime page. How much time have you spent on your computer during the week and weekend? Have a look:

New Computer Uptime page

Keen eyes also notice that the Favorite reboot days chart has changed from a dot chart to a pie chart, blending in with the new uptime chart. It looks like I’m not particularly eager to restart my computer on Mondays. 😉

User Experience, Feedback, and the Help Center​

Every release, we invest time in making WhatPulse easier and more intuitive to use, and this release is no different. For example, the Geek Window is better at remembering its previous position and is easier to edit. On another note, the update process is now completely automatic with one click update.

Another addition is a direct link to our Help Center to help you find articles on how to use WhatPulse. Next to that is a direct link to our Feedback form, as we increasingly would like to know your ideas about WhatPulse to drive the future of the software and website.

Feedback and Help Center links

So, when you’re using WhatPulse and have an idea to improve it or find something that can work better — click the feedback button and let us know!

Conclusion​

Sporting twenty-two changes and three new major features: WhatPulse 5.0 is another big step forward and increases your computer activity and productivity insight.

There’s more in this release than I can cover in this blog post, but I wanted to highlight a few more:

• Bug fix: Input and Network applications could show fewer stats than recorded when applications have multiple different folders from where it runs. An example of an application that does this is Discord.

• New: Add support for hourly mouse coordinate exports.

• Improved: Upload the computer profile (specs, hardware) after pulsing if the website doesn’t have a profile. Speeds up the computer profile visibility.

Find the complete list of new features, improvements, and bug fixes here: https://whatpulse.org/releasenotes/5.0/

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.