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They have created a computer program that records everything you do on your PC and it is terrifying

Its name is 'Windrecorder,' and it's really daunting... and very useful.

They have created a computer program that records everything you do on your PC and it is terrifying
Avatar of Chema Carvajal Sarabia

Chema Carvajal Sarabia

  • May 13, 2024
  • Updated: July 1, 2025 at 11:31 PM
They have created a computer program that records everything you do on your PC and it is terrifying

We’ve all been there: you remember reading or seeing something on your PC, but all attempts to find it again are useless. Repeating previous searches doesn’t work, and the browser history is also useless.

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You’re not sure where you saw that conversation, that photo or that song on your computer and in the end you start wondering if you just imagined it.

In one of the first episodes of Black Mirror, titled “The Entire History of You”, the technology of “grains” allows people to record and replay their memories on demand.

This episode, along with the Rewind app on macOS and FOMO (fear of missing out), has led a developer to create a new open-source application.

The personal PC memory searcher

Windrecorder, the “personal memory finder”, records everything you see and do on your screen and allows you to rewind and search through it.

The application uses FFmpeg to record screen activity in 15-minute fragments and then indexes them using a local Windows OCR API and image embedding.

You can ignore certain applications or areas of the screen, and only record one screen regardless of your settings, although support for multiple monitors is planned.

The application allows you to view daily and periodic screen times, as well as circadian summaries, and can generate monthly light boxes.

You have to take into account some disadvantages: FFmpeg can occasionally consume a large amount of memory, and instant rewind is not an option. You have to wait for each 15-minute video fragment to finish recording before you can rewind it.

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The recording is not encrypted, but if you are concerned about what you do on your computer being leaked to the Internet, the good news is that everything is managed locally, nothing is uploaded to the cloud. There is also no support for AI/ML, although it is a possibility for the future.

Avatar of Chema Carvajal Sarabia

Chema Carvajal Sarabia

Journalist specialized in technology, entertainment and video games. Writing about what I'm passionate about (gadgets, games and movies) allows me to stay sane and wake up with a smile on my face when the alarm clock goes off. PS: this is not true 100% of the time.

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