How to See What Employees Are Doing on Their Computers in Real Time – A Practical Guide for SMBs & IT Providers

How owners and IT providers can use live screen monitoring to understand digital work in real time – from planning and setup to everyday use.

Example of a Wolfeye live dashboard with several company computers visible at the same time.

Many small and mid-sized companies would like to have a better understanding of what actually happens on company computers during the workday. Not to control every single action, but to see whether key systems are used as planned, where staff need support and how digital workflows really look in practice.

IT service providers and managed service providers (MSPs) see the same demand from another angle. They support many PCs for several customers and look for ways to provide more visibility and practical insight without building a heavy monitoring infrastructure from scratch.

Real-time visibility of employee screens is one way to do this. A live dashboard shows you what is happening on selected PCs right now so that you can understand workloads, processes and technical issues more quickly.

This article explains how such a setup works with Wolfeye in everyday business: which use cases are common for SMBs and IT providers, how the technical setup looks and how you can integrate live views into your internal procedures.

The focus is on technical and organisational aspects. This article does not provide legal advice and does not make any statement about what is permitted in any specific country or situation. Laws and regulations differ. Any legal questions about monitoring must be clarified separately with qualified experts in your region.

1. What It Technically Means to See What Employees Are Doing in Real Time

When people search for how to see what employees are doing on their computers, they often imagine many different things: time tracking, keystroke logging, activity scores, full reports and more. Wolfeye focuses on one specific and visual dimension: live screen monitoring.

• Live screen view: The active screen content of a monitored PC is sent to a secure, central dashboard.
• Grid overview: Several PCs can be shown at once as live thumbnails so that you see what is going on across a team or department.
• Focus view: With one click, you can enlarge a single screen to understand what exactly is happening on that machine.

The result is a real-time picture of digital work. You see the same applications, windows and websites that are open on the monitored PC at that moment.

How, when and on which PCs you use this kind of visibility is not a technical question alone. It should follow your organisational decisions and, where necessary, the legal framework that applies to you. This article can give you technical ideas, but it does not replace legal advice.

2. Typical Real-Time Needs for SMB Owners and Managers

For owners and managers of small and mid-sized businesses, real-time visibility is mainly about clarity and better process insight, especially when teams work hybrid or remote.

Typical situations include:

• New staff and probation periods: During the first weeks, you can see whether new employees are already working in the core systems for their role or whether they get stuck in other applications.
• Key workflows and core tools: You can check whether important systems such as CRM, ERP, ticketing tools or industry software are actually in use during core hours.
• Service teams and back office: In service desks, call centres or back office teams, a dashboard view shows which workstations are active, which appear idle and where queues may form.
• Remote and home office staff: For distributed teams, a real-time view can make remote work more tangible and help owners understand how work is organised across locations.

The goal in these scenarios is not permanent micro-control of individuals. The goal is to understand how digital work happens in practice so that you can improve processes, support staff with targeted training and make better decisions about tools and workflows.

3. How IT Service Providers and MSPs Benefit from Real-Time Screen Visibility

For IT service providers and MSPs, real-time views are a practical tool to deliver faster diagnostics, more transparency and clearer service value to customers.

Examples from everyday work:

• Understanding support tickets: When a user reports that something is "not working" or "looks strange", a quick look at the live screen often clarifies what the user is really seeing.
• Checking rollouts and migrations: After introducing a new application or environment, you can briefly check whether staff are working in the new system as intended.
• Verifying remote work setups: For customers with remote staff, a live view helps you confirm that systems, VPNs and applications are used as planned.
• Internal training and handovers: Technicians can use live views during internal sessions to demonstrate typical user situations and show how issues look on the screen.

Wolfeye does not replace established remote support and management tools. Instead, it adds a visual layer that is difficult to achieve with logging data alone and that fits well into existing service processes.

4. Step 1 – Define Scope, Access and Internal Rules

Before you install any software, it helps to define a clear scope. In practice, this often means:

• Selecting specific PC groups: For example, a certain department, a support team or a pilot group of remote staff.
• Deciding when live views are used: For example, mainly during onboarding, during defined peak times or in support situations.
• Defining who can see the dashboard: Typically owners, selected managers or the IT team.

These points are organisational decisions. They help ensure that real-time visibility supports your real business needs and that expectations inside the company are clear.

This article does not answer legal questions. Requirements can differ depending on country, industry and use case. If you plan to introduce monitoring, you should always clarify the legal aspects for your specific situation with qualified local experts.

5. Step 2 – How Wolfeye Shows You Employee Activity in Real Time

Once your scope is clear, you can set up Wolfeye to see what is happening on selected company PCs in real time. The basic steps are:

1. Install Wolfeye on a first test PC. This allows you to become familiar with the installation process and dashboard without changing the whole environment at once.
2. Connect the PC to your Wolfeye account. After installation, the machine appears in the dashboard and you can open a live view of its screen.
3. Roll out Wolfeye to further PCs. Depending on your environment, you can do this manually or with your existing deployment tools.
4. Open the live dashboard. You see monitored PCs as live thumbnails. With one click, you can switch to a full-size view.
5. Organise PCs in a logical way. For example, by location, department, client or function, so that you can navigate quickly.

From that point on, you can use the dashboard whenever you need a visual overview. For example, during short daily checks, in support calls or in internal reviews of processes and workloads.

6. Step 3 – Everyday Use: From Quick Checks to Structured Reviews

After the initial setup, real-time visibility becomes part of everyday work. Typical usage patterns include:

• Short daily overviews: Owners or managers open the dashboard briefly to see how key teams and systems are doing.
• Targeted checks during issues: When something unexpected is reported, you quickly look at the relevant PCs to understand what is visible on the screen.
• Supporting training and process changes: By watching how employees work in new systems in real time, you can improve instructions and onboarding materials.
• Internal quality reviews: IT teams and service providers can use live views as one element in internal reviews of procedures and setups.

How exactly you use these options should follow your internal policies and the legal framework that applies to you. This article can give you practical and technical ideas, but it is not legal advice. It does not define what is required or allowed in any particular country, company or situation.

7. Live Demo: See What Employees Are Doing in Real Time with Wolfeye

The following video shows a live demonstration of Wolfeye. You see how to view employee screens in real time, how the dashboard looks and how you can switch between different PCs.

Video: Real-time view of employee screens with Wolfeye – technical walkthrough and practical examples. The video is for general information and does not replace legal advice.

Conclusion

Real-time visibility of employee screens can make digital work in companies easier to understand and more transparent.

Owners gain a clearer view of how key systems are used in everyday work. IT service providers get a visual tool that supports them in diagnostics, communication and service delivery.

At the same time, monitoring is a sensitive topic. Every organisation should carefully define scope, access and internal rules and clarify any legal questions separately. This article is limited to general technical and organisational information and does not replace legal advice.

A practical approach is to start with a small, clearly defined pilot, test Wolfeye with a few PCs in a controlled environment and then decide together with management and, where appropriate, legal advisors how real-time visibility should be integrated into daily work.

Wolfeye is monitoring software. Any use must comply with the laws and regulations that apply in your country and situation. This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice or a guarantee of specific results.