SentryPC 2.30 Free download

This is the only parental-control software out there I know of that allows you to restrict both websites and apps on a schedule. I don't mind if my son looks at Facebook; I only want to limit the hours he does it and make sure he's not doing that when he should be doing his homework instead. So I thought this program would be the greatest thing. Trouble is, it doesn't work. The scheduler didn't block what it was supposed to, either computer use or certain programs, except very intermittently and at random; the program wouldn't let me override the schedule I set up; and I couldn't get any reports generated. Tech support was worse than useless; they (or should I say, he, for it was the company CEO doubling as support staff) responded to my e-mails after two or three days. The responses were always incomplete, always failed to address at least one issue, and the advice wasn't intuitive. I could have forgiven that if it had worked, but no; no matter what settings I rechecked, troubleshooting routines I went through, or setup jobs I redid, nothing helped. I've asked for a refund. Wish me luck.
General rate: Negative

Pros: This one has a load of feats promised: -detailed time control -http filltering with white-list (exclusively allowed sites) -uses existing windows users doesn't need a special "sentrypc" user -administrator can (mostly) assist user within session Cons: -time usage doesn't reset automatically (bug), nor it is settable manually through interface -logs, settings and counters are open text, RW accessible to ANY user that knows its location -CPU hog 100% usage if multiple users are logged in. Summary: And, yes I'm talking about v2.20. But I dare you to find out what is the update to 2.22 about. The list of cons could go on. The time reset bug is supposedly due to my non US regional setting. This software uses the trick of locking the mouse intom the frame of the SentryPC console window, when user is locked out, but only on primary monitor, so that even the administrator has hard time wrestling the PC out of its grip. An utterly annoying and useless feature. A nightmare for us owners of dual monitor setups. Testing with the demo version doesn't reveal its real problems, because they are mostly time dependent. The demo is cleverly limited to 1h of usage. Worst of it all: customer support. They were quite active a few first day to extract a positive opinion. After pointing out a couple of screaming bugs I got the usual redirection to the manual. After I told them the manual does not reflect reality, I was apparently put on ignore list. I am a software designer myself and I can tell you, these people don't have a clue. Yet, I wonder, how in the world did they manage to put together such a nice list of features-to-be? The reality check is disappointing and extremely so.
General rate: Negative

This software is unreliable and tech support is of no help. I loaded the software and am now locked out of my user account (cannot access any of my data files) because the time management feature will not reset as advertised. Tech support skirts my questions and is of no help.
General rate: Negative