Introduction
TimeSorter helps you understand how you spend time across applications on Windows. It automatically categorizes usage into categories and subcategories, and provides dashboards and summaries to review your activity.
System Requirements & Installation
Installation:
- Available exclusively through Microsoft Store.
Quick Start
- Launch TimeSorter for the first time.
- The app automatically creates and initializes the database with predefined categories, subcategories, and app detection rules.
- You can start using the app immediately - it will begin tracking and categorizing your time.
- Navigate the Dashboard to see your recent activity.
- Customize categories and rules as needed through Time Categories and detection rule creation.
Interface Overview
- Main Navigation: Use the left navigation to switch between pages.
- Dashboard: Overview of recent activity and quick actions.
- Period Summary: Aggregated time for a selected period (e.g., week).
- Time History: List of recorded sessions with right-click actions.
- Time Categories: Manage categories/subcategories and re-categorize history.
- Settings: Configure thresholds and preferences.
- Tray Icon: Quick access to key actions.
Categories Reference System
The categories system uses a hierarchical structure to organize and detect application usage:
Categories
Categories have three attributes:
- Name: Display name for the category
- Color: Visual color for charts and displays
- Icon: Visual icon for easy identification
Subcategories
Subcategories have:
- Name: Display name for the subcategory
- Color: Visual color for charts and displays
Detection Rules
Detection Rules contain:
- Process Name: The Windows process name (e.g., "chrome.exe", "notepad.exe")
- Keywords: Optional phrases to match in the window title
- Category/Subcategory: Where to categorize matching sessions
Important Notes:
- You can create unlimited categories and subcategories, but keep the number reasonable to maintain readable charts and summaries.
- Each subcategory can contain unlimited detection rules.
- Rules are checked in the order they appear in the reference system - order matters for accurate categorization.
- Drag and Drop: Categories, subcategories, and rules can be reordered using drag-and-drop functionality.
- Save Changes: After making modifications, click the Save button to apply changes.
- Discard Changes: Use the Discard button to cancel all unsaved modifications.
- Delete Records: Any record can be deleted from the reference system.
- Cascading Deletion: When a parent record (category or subcategory) is deleted, all child records (subcategories or rules) are also deleted.
- History Preservation: Application history is preserved, but sessions that belonged to deleted categories/subcategories are moved to the "Undefined" category.
How Detection Works
- The app matches the process name first
- If keywords are specified, it checks if any keyword appears in the window title
- If multiple keywords exist, any match will trigger the rule
- The first matching rule determines the category
Example: Chrome Browser Categorization
For Chrome browser:
- Rule 1: Process="chrome.exe", Keyword="YouTube" → Entertainment category
- Rule 2: Process="chrome.exe", No keywords → General Web browsing category
The order is crucial - the YouTube rule must come first, otherwise all Chrome usage would be categorized as general web browsing.
Category Detection Rules
You can create category detection rules directly from Time History and Dashboard.
How to create a rule:
- Right-click any session row.
- Select "Create Detection Rule".
- In the dialog, choose Category and Subcategory, set a Rule Name, and optionally add Keywords to match against the window title.
After creation:
- Future sessions matching the rule are auto-categorized.
- To re-categorize existing history, use
Time Categories → Re-categorize.
- When you change categories or rules, use Re-categorize to apply new logic to all saved records.
How Time Tracking Works
TimeSorter continuously monitors your activity:
- Real-time monitoring: Every second, the app checks the currently active (focused) window.
- Data collection: For each active window, it captures the process name and window title.
- Session recording: This information is used to create time sessions and apply appropriate categories.
Classification Process
TimeSorter evaluates categories and subcategories in order:
- For each subcategory, it checks associated applications.
- If a stored process name does not match the session's process name, it moves on.
- If the application has no keywords, that subcategory is selected immediately.
- If keywords exist, each keyword is checked against the window title. On the first match, that subcategory is selected.
- If no keywords match for any application in any subcategory, the category
System – Unknown is used.
Notes: A keyword may consist of multiple words.
Time History
The Time History page provides a detailed chronological list of all your application sessions:
Features:
- Session List: View all recorded time sessions in chronological order
- Period Selection: Choose different time periods (Today, Yesterday, This Week, etc.) using the dropdown
- Session Details: Each session shows:
- Application name and window title
- Start and end times
- Duration
- Assigned category and subcategory
- Process name
Actions Available:
- Right-click Context Menu:
- Create Detection Rule: Set up automatic categorization for similar sessions
- Delete Session: Remove individual sessions from the database
- Filtering: Use the period selector to focus on specific time ranges
- Sorting: Sessions are displayed in chronological order
Use Cases:
- Review your daily computer usage patterns
- Identify uncategorized sessions that need detection rules
- Clean up unwanted or incorrect time tracking data
- Analyze time spent on specific applications or projects
Period Summary
The Period Summary page provides aggregated statistics and insights about your time usage across different categories:
Features:
- Period Selection: Choose different time periods (Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, etc.) using the dropdown
- Category Breakdown: View time spent in each category and subcategory
- Visual Charts: Graphical representation of your time distribution
- Detailed Metrics: Comprehensive statistics for each subcategory
Metrics Displayed:
- CategoryName: Category name associated with the subcategory
- SubcategoryName: The subcategory being summarized
- TotalDuration: Total time in this subcategory over the selected period
- MaxDuration: Maximum single-day duration in the period
- MinDuration: Minimum non-zero single-day duration in the period (0 if none)
- AvgDuration: TotalDuration divided by number of days in the period
- PercentDuration: (Subcategory Total / All Subcategories Total) × 100, rounded to two decimals
- DaysPresent: Number of days with activity (> 0) for the subcategory in the period
Use Cases:
- Analyze productivity patterns over different time periods
- Compare time usage across categories and subcategories
- Identify trends in your computer usage
- Generate reports for productivity analysis
- Track progress on time management goals
Settings
The Settings page allows you to customize various aspects of the application:
Default Periods:
- Default history period: Sets the default time period shown when opening the History page (Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, Last Quarter, This Year, Last Year).
- Default summary period: Sets the default time period shown when opening the Period Summary page.
Time Configuration:
- Day start time: Defines when a new day begins in the application (default: 6:00 AM). This affects daily summaries, reports, and time-based features to align with your personal schedule.
Appearance:
- Theme: Choose between Default (follows system settings), Light, or Dark theme.
Startup:
- Run with Windows: Enable to automatically start the application when Windows boots.
About:
- Version information and links to privacy policy and third-party software acknowledgments.
Data & Maintenance
Database Storage:
- Location: The database file is stored locally on your computer.
- File name:
TimeSorter.db (SQLite database format)
- Path:
%AppData%\TimeSorter\TimeSorter.db (typically C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\TimeSorter\TimeSorter.db)
- Backup: You can copy this file to backup your data or transfer it to another computer.
- Security: This file contains sensitive information about your computer usage patterns, including what applications you use and when. Keep this file secure and do not share it with unauthorized parties.
Data Privacy:
- Local storage only: All data is stored locally on your device - no information is transmitted to the web or external servers.
- No cloud sync: The app does not sync data to any cloud services.
- Complete privacy: Your usage data remains completely private and under your control.
Maintenance Operations:
- Re-categorize: Use
Time Categories → Re-categorize to apply new rules to existing history.
- When you modify categories, subcategories, or detection rules, re-categorization will check each saved record and apply the updated categorization logic.
- Delete records: Right-click any record in Dashboard or History pages to open the context menu and delete individual records from the database.
Updates
- Updates are delivered automatically through Microsoft Store.
- The app will notify you when updates are available.
FAQ
Q: Why do I see System – Unknown?
A: A session did not match any rule; add a detection rule.
Q: Do keywords support multiple words?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I re-categorize past sessions?
A: Yes, use Time Categories → Re-categorize.
Q: Why do I see data outside the selected period in app history?
A: This happens because the app uses your custom "Day start time" setting to determine when a day begins. By default, a day starts at 6:00 AM and ends at 6:00 AM the next day. Use Settings page to adjust this time.