WhatPulse Professional Release Notes

WhatPulse Professional 6.0.2 brings Web Insights, a more flexible UI, better stability. Plus a series of targeted fixes for managed and enterprise deployments on Windows and macOS.

Web Insights: website activity tracking

Web Insights introduces website-level activity tracking through browser extensions, integrating browsing activity directly into WhatPulse.

• Track time spent and activity on websites, including keys, clicks, scrolling, and mouse movement
• View website activity alongside applications inside the WhatPulse app
• Associate website stats with profiles to separate work, personal, or other contexts
• Exclude specific websites or patterns from tracking
• Export website activity data for deeper analysis or reporting
• Privacy-first by design:
  • Only website domains are tracked; never full URLs or page content
  • Browser extensions don’t run in private or incognito mode
  • Website stats are private and never publicly visible

Browser extension pairing can be auto-approved via settings-overrides.ini for managed deployments with pre-installed extensions. Learn more about (automatically) deploying the extension here.

Web Insights in the Portal: organization-wide website visibility

Web Insights data is now available directly inside the WhatPulse Professional portal. Administrators can view aggregated website usage across the organization, including:

• Total time and activity per domain
• Keys, clicks, and engagement metrics
• Website metadata such as tags, categories, and productive/non-productive classification
• Usage trends over time

From the organization overview, you can drill down into individual users and profiles to see website usage at a granular level, fully integrated with application activity dashboards.

Managed deployment improvements

• Standardized Windows startup on registry keys — Task Scheduler is removed entirely; startup now uses HKCU (single-user) or HKLM (all-users/installer-managed) registry keys
  • Automatic migration from legacy Task Scheduler and lowercase registry entries on first run after upgrade
  • Installer sets startup_managed_by_installer flag in settings-overrides.ini so the app skips startup management
• Fixed MSI installer issues:
  • MSI now installs as proper 64-bit (no longer writes to WOW6432Node)
  • Fixed HKLM startup registry entry not being created
  • Fixed all-users install being enabled regardless of checkbox state
  • Fixed launch-on-startup being immediately disabled after enabling (case-insensitive registry key collision)
• OS username included in client authorization requests so admins can identify which machine user is requesting authorization (portal integration to come in the future)
• Computer serial number included in upload_computerinfo for asset tracking (portal integration to come in the future)

UI and usability improvements

• The main window is now fully resizable and remembers its size and position
• Application Activity charts include forward and backward day navigation
• Dialogs, buttons, and confirmations polished throughout the app
• New application sync status window with detailed logging
• Time series handling separated from pulsing, so dashboard data is not interrupted by sync delays

Stability and performance

• Keyboard and mouse heatmaps render in the background to avoid UI freezes
• Better detection of hardware, input devices, and network interfaces on newer Windows versions
• Improved handling of unusual display and multi-monitor configurations
• Hardened cleanup across network monitor, browser extension server, database, and heatmap components

macOS

• Safer GeoIP database updates (no more file overwrite crashes)
• Fixed timestamp bug that could cause timezone-related crashes
• Standalone .pkg installer for MDM/enterprise deployment

Windows

• Third-party shell extensions (e.g. OneDrive, Dropbox) no longer crash icon retrieval
• Improved MSI uninstall cleanup — WhatPulse process is now cleanly shut down during uninstall

Client API

• New /v1/idle endpoint exposing WhatPulse’s internal last-input timestamp for accurate idle detection by third-party tools
• Idle status also included in /v1/all-stats and websocket updates

A new Reports section is now available, giving you out-of-the-box insights into your organization’s devices, activity, and productivity. No setup required, with exports available for deeper analysis.

Available reports:

• Hardware Inventory — See all your devices at a glance with CPU, RAM, GPU specs, and OS distribution.
• Offline Devices — Identify devices that haven’t checked in, with configurable offline thresholds and days-offline tracking.
• Kiosk Usage — Analyze computer utilization with average daily focused time and a low-utilization flag for consolidation candidates. Optionally filter to workday hours only.
• New Applications — Discover newly installed applications across your fleet within any date range.
• Project Time Tracking — Break down time spent per shared profile across your team, with session counts and activity metrics.
• Trend Changes — Compare keystrokes, clicks, or uptime between periods to spot usage trends at the computer or organization level.

Every report includes summary cards, a chart visualization, a sortable data table, and CSV export. Use the filters at the top of each report to narrow results by date range, OS, metric, and more.

Reports is currently in preview and we’d love to hear your feedback!

Global search is now available in WhatPulse Professional.

You can quickly find users, computers, and applications across your organization from anywhere in the app. Open search with ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux), start typing, and jump straight to what you’re looking for, no extra clicks.

Search respects permissions, updates in near real-time, and works just as well for daily navigation as it does for admin tasks.

WhatPulse Professional 5.11.2 introduces Focused Time along with several improvements to reliability, performance, and application syncing.

New ✨

• Focused Time: More accurate measurement of active computer use based on typing and mouse activity.
  • Per-application: Detailed breakdown of active time across applications.
  • Focused time is also tracked throughout the use of the time tracking profiles.
• Status Bar: New optional status bar showing collector status, last pulse details, and pending app syncs.

Improvements 📈

• Faster client startup and improved UI responsiveness.
• More precise application usage timing (millisecond resolution).
• Cached application icons for faster app list loading.
• Smoother, clearer application syncing (notably on macOS).
• Improved layout spacing, tooltip visuals, and UI consistency.
• Sharper icons on recent macOS versions.
• More reliable behavior of the Geek Window on multi-monitor setups.
• Smarter database version compatibility messages.
• Better version sync with the Professional dashboard after upgrades.
• Correct display of large network usage values.

Fixes 🐞

• Fixed inaccurate key-combination counts caused by stuck modifier keys.
• Multiple stability fixes around shutdown, window lifecycle, and rapid UI interactions.

You can now zoom in to see hourly activity on any dashboard chart! Open a chart and switch the grouping from day to hour to explore detailed patterns across users, computers, or groups. It’s a great way to spot daily trends and see exactly when activity peaks. When you export the chart, the CSV will use the same hourly granularity you’ve selected.

You can now export the data behind any chart on your dashboard! Just hover over a chart to reveal the export button. Click it, and you’ll get a CSV file with all the data and metrics from that chart.

This update brings a few quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes, and under-the-hood changes to improve stability and future compatibility.

🪄 Improvements

• The setup wizard now has its own window, making the setup and main interface simpler.
• The Geek Window stats %TotalDistance% and %TotalScrolls% now reflect account totals correctly, not just the current computer’s stats.
• The network time series for computers with multiple interfaces has been fixed to sum the data correctly, ensuring accurate historical data. This applies to the time series currently used in the Discord leaderboards.
• Fixed a few memory leaks when opening the main window repeatedly, which will slightly reduce memory usage over time.
• Fixed a few possible crashes when exiting WhatPulse with the main window still open. You were closing WhatPulse anyway, so these weren’t really a problem—but still worth fixing.

WhatPulse Professional updates

• Improved compatibility for Nuance PowerScribe.
• Streamlined the Professional interface by removing buttons that only apply to the Community version (such as share buttons, online profile link, change password, etc.).
• Clicking “Open Online Stats” now takes you to your Dashboard for a more integrated experience.
• The release notes link now points to the new whatpulse.pro/releasenotes page when there’s a new version.

We’ve added an organization-wide audit log to give you clearer oversight of everything happening in your WhatPulse Professional account. Admins and owners can now view a complete timeline of key events: computer assignments, settings changes, logins, password changes, and more—with full context like IP addresses, browser details, and timestamps.

Need to verify who made a change? Check. The audit log is searchable, easy to navigate, and available right from your sidebar. It’s a simple way to stay informed and accountable without extra overhead.

🚀 New

Multi-monitor mouse heat map support

Mouse activity is now mapped across multiple screens, allowing for per-display heat maps. You can analyze each monitor individually or review the entire setup at once. Heat map rendering has also been visually refreshed for better clarity.

Extended Application Activity history

The Application Activity chart now supports scrolling beyond the 24-hour default, making it easier to review usage patterns and behaviors over time—ideal for weekly or multi-day productivity analysis.

Updated dark mode UI

Dark mode has been visually aligned with the current WhatPulse design system. The updated theme improves visual clarity and reduces eye strain during extended usage.

🔧 Improvements

Separate internet vs. local traffic tracking

Network traffic is now categorized internally as either local or internet. While this won’t appear in the UI just yet, the separation is already reflected in exported data—useful for teams conducting bandwidth audits or compliance reviews.

Reintroduction of full packet capture (PCAP)

WhatPulse now captures network data using full packet capture instead of OS counters, improving reliability. The network capture engine also includes: a 256MB packet buffer, immediate mode enabled, NIC buffering enhancements

Together, these updates improve performance and enable accurate monitoring of high-throughput connections up to 10Gbit/s.

Database and performance optimizations

• The app loads significantly faster, even with multi-year datasets.
• Database integrity checks are now performed weekly, with automatic repair routines for structural issues.
• A smarter caching mechanism improves responsiveness across charts and reports.

Additional updates

• Game controller input: Gamepads from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, 8BitDo, and others are now auto-detected and correctly mapped—ensuring accurate input tracking across devices.
• Keyboard heat map: Application grouping is improved, and tooltips now display the full executable path for each item.
• Better resilience during system sleep/wake cycles: duplicate event protection and more robust startup checks reduce the chance of crashes.
• Network request handling is more stable, with request timeouts and automatic recovery from stalled network states.
• Upgraded to Qt 6.9.1 on Windows and macOS, improving compatibility and access to modern platform features.
• Linux improvements: Correct theme detection, smoother window behavior on GNOME, properly positioned toolbar buttons, and improved display detection for mouse tracking.
• Upgraded embedded SQLite version for better performance and smaller log file size.
• Move client communication to app.whatpulse.pro from whatpulse.pro. Same external IP addresses, only different hostname.

🐛 Fixes

• Windows: Resolved an issue where some update checks mistakenly triggered a UAC prompt.
• Fixed incorrect global stats caused by deleting a local profile.
• Corrected a visual bug where updates didn’t appear to complete when the MaintenanceTool was also updated.
• Fixed lingering mouse button data in the Mouse Details page when switching between time ranges.
• Eliminated false mouse clicks at coordinate (0,0) from the heat map display.
• Uptime chart no longer stretches the Y-axis when a day has no data.
• Improved styling for startup error messages to ensure readability during critical failures.
• Time series data for network activity now groups correctly by hour and day on multi-adapter systems (feature not yet exposed in the UI).
• The embedded Swagger API interface now renders correctly instead of returning JSON headers.

You can now merge multiple computers into a single record. This helps when upgrading or moving hardware, or cleaning up duplicate entries.

The merge combines all stats, app data, and history from a source computer into your target computer—keeping your data intact. Start by clicking the new “Merge” button on any computer’s detail page.

Learn how to merge computers →

New: CSV Exports

You can now export data in CSV format from the Computers, Users, Applications, and Pulses sections.

• Exports include all matching data, not just what’s visible on screen.
• Supports filters like search terms, tags, and date ranges.
• Perfect for reporting, analysis, and working with your data in Excel, Google Sheets, or BI tools.

Available today for all organizations—admins can export everything, users can export their own data. Look for the Export CSV button in your dashboard, or learn more in our help center.

Ever wondered which apps your marketing team is really using all day? Now you can filter application usage data by computer tags to see exactly who’s doing what. Compare teams, analyze departments, or finally catch which office is spending too much time on cat videos.

Learn more in the Help Center

You can now add tags to your computers (like “Marketing,” “Engineering,” or “That One Machine That Always Crashes”) making it easier to organize and filter your fleet. Perfect for creating teams, tracking departments, or just satisfying your inner organizer.

Learn more in the Help Center

It’s now easier than ever to get data for a specific date range! The new date range widget lets you quickly pick standard date ranges, or select a custom range in a single view:

After the initial onboarding, it was a bit difficult to find your organization ID for subsequential WhatPulse app installs. Not anymore! Find (and quickly copy to clipboard) your organization ID on both the Downloads page and the Organization settings page.

To make automated deployments easier, we’ve just published a Microsoft Installer (MSI) package! It holds the same version of the WhatPulse software, but integrates into enterprise deployment managers more easily.

Get it from the downloads page.

• Date Ranges for Apps: You can now filter app usage by date on your own dashboard and user pages, making it easier to see what applications were used during a specific time frame.
• Mouse Distance Preference: Choose between miles (imperial) or kilometers (metric) for mouse distance, and it’ll update everywhere—charts, tables, you name it.
• Search Reset: Hit “Escape” in the search box to quickly clear your search and start fresh.

To keep track of what’s being added to WhatPulse Professional, you can now see a history of updates in this very widget!

Newly uploaded applications will now show their applications that are discovered from the computers.

To make it easier to reach out and find help for WhatPulse Professional, we’ve included the Help Center on the sidebar and the chat support widget on the bottom right. Don’t hesitate to reach out!