SpyBuddy is a PC monitoring tool that keeps an eye on computer activity and logs all information, starting with the pressed keystrokes and ending with instant messaging conversations.

Installation is nothing special, except for a dedicated step that prompts you to pick the setup type, which can be either administrator or stealth/hidden.

If you choose the first one, the installer drops all shortcuts in the Start Menu plus the additional documentation, while the second one doesn't include the aforementioned extras.

SpyBuddy is pretty easy to use and in case you're not in the mood to jump into the configuration screen and the tons of options it provides, it's always a good idea to have a look at the setup wizard tool included in the app.

This way, you can configure not only the local activities to be monitored, but also email accounts to automatically send logs via email.

SpyBuddy can thus record chat conversations, website activities, clipboard content, loaded applications, window activity, pressed keystrokes, printed documents, disk activity and changes. It supports AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN and Trillian, so chances are that you can record all chats that may take place on your system.

The application can take screenshots of the screen at a user-defined interval, with fully configurable quality and size. Plus, it provides password protection, so that nobody could close the app or stop the logging process.

While it works quite fine on Windows XP, SpyBuddy doesn't seem to work on Windows 7, despite the fact that we've tried running it with administrator privileges.

All in all, SpyBuddy is a useful tool, but it still needs a bunch of updates. It does what it says however, especially on older operating systems.