Feature Set:  

Strengths:
Basically, imView can capture everything done on a computer including specific keywords searched, keyboard entries, websites visited and programs used. It can also gather screen shots at time intervals that you set and those screen shots can capture all kinds of information including chat conversations.

This monitoring program can be set to block websites by specific URL and by keywords in the URL. imView includes a long lists of suggested keywords to block, so the parent can either select the whole list or it is quite easy to just choose the ones that you consider inappropriate. imView also makes it simple for the parent to enter in new keywords as they need to. All information is captured in stealth mode without the user knowing.

Weaknesses:
imView currently only works with Internet Explorer, and does not work with Firefox, Opera or other browsers. So you have to restrict the child from downloading other browsers using Window’s tools. However, we tested it using Firefox and it would still collect screen shots. In terms of email, it only captures emails sent using Outlook and Outlook Express, which most children rarely use. Some of the suggested URLs to block missed some obvious sites, for example the “dating” site list did not include “adult” dating sites like AdultFriendFinder and Fling.

Basically this software is more designed for monitoring than blocking and heavily relies on blocking URLs to stop things like P2P file sharing, porn viewing, downloads and so on. This means you have to know the complete URL address in order to block something and you may only be able to discover that after your child has already visited the site.

Ease of Use:  

The web based interface supported by imView is simple to use. We did not have any trouble figuring our how to set blocked keywords, configure screen shot capturing or adding URLs to block. It was also easy to read the reports and delete data.

Ease of Installation:  

This program installed quickly onto the monitored computer, however, we did see a noticeable slowdown in processes. Everything seemed to take longer, even things as simple as entering text.

Filtering Effectiveness:  

As mentioned this software only works with Internet Explorer, which makes the product useless for the over 20 percent of users who do not like IE. They also do not have a Mac version. In addition, we tried to capture chat conversations using MSN and Yahoo IM services and the conversations were not collected, we could only view the words of the conversations in the keystroke reporting section and even then it did not capture the entire conversation.

imView seemed to be more like a monitoring program than a filtering program and lacked many of the features that the other products we reviewed included, such as the ability to run with different kinds of browsers. If you are looking for a more flexible program to protect your children online we would recommend that you check one of our higher ranked filtering products, such as Net Nanny Parental Controls.