Still-Lane support

Updated 21 October 2026. Still-Lane estimates time with an app in front. Totals describe computer use; they do not measure productivity.

Start, pause and quit

Choose Start tracking on the setup screen to consent and begin. In the main window choose Pause tracking or Resume tracking. The same actions are in the notification-area tray menu; Windows may put the icon in its hidden-icons menu. Pausing also pauses reminders, and the paused state survives a tracker restart.

Closing the main window leaves the tracker running in the tray. Choose Open Still-Lane from the tray to reopen it, or Quit to stop the tracker. If the tracker is stopped, opening the window with consent already saved starts it again.

Exclude an app or delete history

Open Apps & limits, select the app, and turn on Stop tracking this app. Confirm to delete its recorded history and stop future collection for it. Turn the switch off to resume; previous history will not return.

Delete this app's history removes its saved usage but keeps its category and rules. Future usage is still recorded unless you exclude it. Data controls > Delete all data… stops the tracker, deletes every database record and attempts to delete agent.log, then returns to setup. Exports and backups are independent copies and must be removed separately. If the tracker is not responding, use Quit in its tray menu and retry deletion.

Reports, retention and export

Overview offers Day and Week views, previous/next periods, Today, and an app/category filter. Active and idle time appear separately. Data controls' retention setting defaults to 90 days and deletes old usage intervals; it does not expire focus-session history, app identities or settings.

Choose Export JSON… for one file containing saved intervals, focusSessions and focusSchedules. Schedules include their chosen days, local start time, length and enabled state. Choose Export CSV… for two files in the selected folder: <name>.csv for usage and <name>-focus-sessions.csv for sessions. Focus-session timestamps use UTC with an explicit offset; the original local offset is not stored for sessions. Usage timestamps retain the offset stored with each interval. Exports omit the currently open usage interval until it is saved, the log, and a separate inventory of settings and rules.

Daily limits and focus sessions

On Apps & limits, select an app and set its daily limit in minutes, or clear the field for none. Select a category and use Category daily limit in minutes (empty: none) to set a shared budget for all apps currently assigned to that category. It counts saved active time across those apps plus the active interval still open. Idle time is excluded. Changing category membership reassigns that app's saved time to its current category. Either the app limit or category limit can trigger a reminder; category reminders name the category.

On Focus, select a length of 1–480 minutes and choose Start focus session. Apps marked Remind me during focus sessions show a reminder during it. End the session from Focus, tray menu or reminder. Sessions end at their planned wall-clock time even after sleep or restart; a clock moved before the start also ends a session.

Limits and focus rules show reminders. They never close, kill, suspend or block another app. You can keep working, switch apps or dismiss a reminder. Daily limits offer Remind me in 5 minutes and Allow for the rest of today. These choices apply only to the selected app, even when the shared category limit was reached. Other apps in that category can still remind you. Focus reminders offer Allow 5 minutes or End focus session. Closing a reminder chooses the five-minute option. Five-minute and rest-of-day allowances are saved across tracker restarts until they expire. A new focus session clears the previous session’s focus allowances. Deleting an app’s history also clears its saved allowances. Daily limits reset at local midnight.

The tray can show a five-minutes-left notice and a session-finished notice. Windows notification settings can suppress these notices; the separate reminder window still works. Pause, lock, sleep and excluded or unidentified apps do not produce limit reminders. Protected processes may appear as Unknown app and cannot receive a limit.

Known reminder limitation: on the Windows 11 build used for the M3 check (26220), Windows sometimes refused to keep the background agent's reminder always on top. It was raised again about every five seconds and stayed above Notepad in that test, but a full-screen app or one that repeatedly raises itself may cover it. Behavior over elevated and full-screen apps, and on a release Windows build, still needs verification. A reminder is reachable through Alt+Tab or its taskbar entry. Tab moves between its two choices; no default Enter action is assigned to the form.

Appearance

Use the three icons at the top right of the window, beside the minimize button: the sun for Light, the moon for Dark, and the monitor for Use Windows setting. The pressed icon shows the current choice. Light is the default. Your choice is saved on this PC. Windows high-contrast colors take priority.

Water break

On the Focus page you can switch on an optional water reminder. While tracking is on and you are at the PC, Still-Lane shows a notification every 15 to 240 minutes (60 by default). It never reminds you while tracking is paused, the PC is locked or you are idle. Log a glass from the app or from the tray icon menu; today's count and your choices are saved on this PC and removed by Delete all data. Turn it off at any time with the same switch.

Start at sign-in

In the installed package, open Data controls and turn Start tracking when I sign in to Windows on or off. It starts the tray agent, not the report window, and is off by default. Consent is still required.

If Windows says it was disabled by the user, enable it in Settings > Apps > Startup. Organization policy can prevent changes. Actual startup across a sign-out/sign-in remains a release acceptance check.

Troubleshooting and help

Status shows whether app-switch detection and media checking work, whether the session is locked/idle, save errors, recent intervals and the database path. If app-switch detection is unavailable, polling runs every five seconds. Without input, the default idle threshold is five minutes; only a playing media session associated with the app in front suppresses idle detection. Apps & limits also offers Count time as active even without keyboard or mouse for reading and passive viewing.

When requesting help, describe the action, expected result, actual result, Windows version and app version. Use the contact details below for help. Do not send your database, exports or log by default: they contain activity or diagnostic details. Review and remove personal information from any diagnostic excerpt you choose to share.

Keyboard names, tab order, tray access keys and growing reminder layouts are implemented. Narrator, high contrast, live keyboard navigation and 200% Windows text scaling still need manual release acceptance. See Privacy policy for the current data behavior.

Contact

Email [email protected] and mention Still-Lane. Built and supported by Tendercraft. Please do not send your activity database or exports by default.

Weekdays, schedules and weekly review

The app and category editors offer weekday overrides. Monday is the first day; an empty field uses the default daily limit. A number replaces that default for the selected weekday. Budgets remain reminders.

In Focus, add scheduled sessions by choosing days, a local start time and length. The tracker checks at most five seconds apart. A session starts during its scheduled minute only, with tracking on and no existing session. Paused, locked or sleeping sessions are not started late; missing daylight-saving minutes are skipped, and a repeated minute can start a schedule only once per local date. Overlapping schedules do not queue extra sessions.

The Overview weekly review compares the selected Monday-based week with the previous full week. The current week includes time recorded so far, so it is a partial-week comparison. It shows active time, changes for the top three apps, active time overlapping focus sessions, completed sessions and the most/least active elapsed days. It includes all apps, independently of report filters. Websites aren't tracked. Browser time is counted as one app.

Tour and diagnostics

The short first-run tour has Next, Skip and Close. Finish or Skip saves “don't show again”; Status > Show the tour again reopens it. Delete all data resets that preference.

Status > Copy diagnostic info copies app/Windows/.NET versions, package state, tracker flags, schema, record counts, retention days and up to 50 sanitized log entries. Timestamps and variable log details are removed rather than copying raw errors. It contains no app names, window titles, paths or usage times. The confirmation reads “Copied. Paste it into your support message.” Nothing is sent automatically; review before sharing.

If a newer app has already upgraded your database, the older app refuses it with “This data was created by a newer version of Still-Lane. Update the app.” Update the app; do not delete or downgrade your database.

The licensing seam is disabled. The app does not request a Store licence or restrict features in this development build.