TOPIC
    about_MyMonitor

SHORT DESCRIPTION
    Describes the basic concepts in using the MyMonitor module.

LONG DESCRIPTION
    The MyMonitor module contains a small set of commands for monitoring active
    window use. The Get-WindowTime function uses another "helper" function called
    Get-ForegroundWindowProcess to retrieve the active window process. However,
    processes that don't have interactive windows or those associated with Task
    Switching are excluded. Get-WindowTime keeps track of how long you are 
    spending on a window based primarily on its window title. At the end of the 
    monitoring process, it writes results to the pipeline.

    Time        : 00:00:18.9084682
    Application : Thunderbird
    WindowTitle : Junk - Jeffery Hicks - Mozilla Thunderbird
    Product     : Thunderbird

    Time        : 00:00:12.6757123
    Application : Windows PowerShell ISE
    WindowTitle : Administrator: Windows PowerShell ISE
    Product     : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

    Time        : 00:00:49.1406603
    Application : Microsoft Management Console
    WindowTitle : Hyper-V Manager
    Product     : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System


    If the process does not have a WindowTitle property, then the function will
    first check for .MainModule.Description and if that doesn't exist, then the
    function will use the process name. The other information is pulled from the
    MainModule property so that you can evaluate how much time you are spending
    by application or product.

    MONITORING
    By default, Get-WindowTime will monitor active window use for 1 minute. You
    can specify a different number of minute or a specific date time. Another 
    option is to use a process "trigger". This is the name of a process that you
    rarely use, such as CALC. When Get-WindowTime detects the presence of that
    process, it will stop monitoring and write results to the pipeline. 
    
    Because monitoring will block the prompt, you also have an option to run
    everything in a background job. Note that if you terminate the background 
    job you will not get any results.

    One potential drawback to this toolset, it that there is no way to pause
    and resume monitoring. Thus, you might have skewed results when you go to 
    meetings or take a lunch break. One workaround is to select an application
    that you do not use, such as Calc.exe and run that during your away time. 
    When you measure results, you can ignore or filter out that process.

    MEASURING
    When you are finished monitoring, you can use Measure-WindowTotal to analyze
    the data. Pipe your data to the command. The default is to display results
    by application.

    PS C:\> $data | Measure-WindowTotal

    Application                                       TotalTime
    -----------                                       ---------
    Windows PowerShell ISE                            00:00:12.6757123
    Windows PowerShell                                00:00:22.6393253
    Google Chrome                                     00:01:54.1870428
    Thunderbird                                       00:03:10.1524340
    Microsoft Management Console                      00:04:19.7252959

    But you can also measure by product:

    PS C:\> $data | Measure-WindowTotal -Product

    Product                                           TotalTime
    -------                                           ---------
    Google Chrome                                     00:01:54.1870428
    Thunderbird                                       00:03:10.1524340
    Microsoft® Windows® Operating System              00:04:55.0403335

    or by Title.

    PS C:\> $data | Measure-WindowTotal -Title

    WindowTitle                                       TotalTime
    -----------                                       ---------
    July 2014 - Mozilla Thunderbird                   00:00:00.7309264
    New Tab - Google Chrome                           00:00:02.6440093
    Calendar - Mozilla Thunderbird                    00:00:02.7084472
    Hootsuite - Google Chrome                         00:00:07.6023926
    Facebook - Google Chrome                          00:00:09.0954287
    Administrator: Windows PowerShell ISE             00:00:12.6757123
    Junk - Jeffery Hicks - Mozilla Thunderbird        00:00:18.9084682
    Administrator: Windows PowerShell                 00:00:22.6393253
    Inbox - Jeffery Hicks - Mozilla Thunderbird       00:00:29.1373713
    Hyper-V Manager                                   00:00:49.1406603
    Update Services                                   00:03:23.7454981


    You can also filter by specifying a string or regular expression pattern for
    text in the Window title. This can be useful when you want to see how much
    time you are spending on a particular set of applications or products.

    PS C:\> $data | Measure-WindowTotal -Filter "facebook|hootsuite"

    Application                                       TotalTime
    -----------                                       ---------
    Google Chrome                                     00:00:16.6978213

    The last measure-related command is Get-WindowTimeSummary. To use this you 
    will need a variable holding all of the work items. This will show you not
    only the total time for products or applications, but also a range of the
    first and last item for each.

    PS C:\> get-windowtimesummary $data | sort total | format-table -autosize

    Name                                 Total            Start                 End
    ----                                 -----            -----                 ---
    Google Chrome Windows PowerShell ISE 00:00:00.2776561 8/25/2014 10:46:36 AM 8/25/2014 11:01:04 AM
    Microsoft Word                       00:00:01.4462946 8/25/2014 12:14:50 PM 8/25/2014 12:18:34 PM
    Windows PowerShell                   00:04:50.0923401 8/25/2014 11:38:14 AM 8/25/2014 12:19:31 PM
    Thunderbird                          00:05:35.3980271 8/25/2014 12:02:32 PM 8/25/2014 12:19:04 PM
    Google Chrome                        00:29:57.3321071 8/25/2014 11:56:36 AM 8/25/2014 12:20:27 PM

    CUSTOM VIEWS
    The MyMonitor module includes custom type and format extensions. The default
    display is a list. The module includes several views for Format-Table, but
    you should sort your data first, as the views group data by either product

    PS C:\> $data | sort Product | format-table -View Product

    or application

    PS C:\> $data | sort Application,Time | format-table -View Application
    
    The output from Get-WindowTime is no different than any other type of object
    in PowerShell which means you can export to a CSV or XML format, save to a
    text file or anything else. These commands only work for the current and 
    local interactive user.

    ALIASES
    The module contains the following aliases:

    gfwp --> Get-ForegroundWindowProcess
    gwt  --> Get-Windowtime
    mwt  --> Measure-WindowTotal
    gwts --> Get-WindowTimeSummary

    IMPORTING AND EXPORTING
    It is recommended that you use the XML format to export and import
    work history.
    
    PS C:\> $data | export-clixml C:\work\8-25-15-work.xml

    The XML format will preserve property type. Before using any imported
    data, be sure to import this module first. This will properly format
    and display the imported data and allow you to measure it.
    
    KNOWN ISSUES
    Occassionally, you may see a result like this:
    
    Time        : 00:00:00.2095710
    Application : {Google Chrome, Thunderbird}
    WindowTitle : Hootsuite - Google Chrome Mozilla Thunderbird
    Product     : {Google Chrome, Thunderbird}

    This appears to be the result of task switching with either Alt+Tab or
    Ctrl+Tab. For the most part, the time spent is in milleseconds and thus
    can be ignored.  
        
SEE ALSO
    Get-Process