February 18, 2010 | Software and Downloads

Here’s a neat little application that makes a picture of your mouse movements as you use your computer. It’s sort of hokey, but I guess you could use it to track how people use your website.

Anatoly Zenkov, a Russian software and website developer, released the MousePath program just for fun. It keeps track of your mouse as you move it around the screen, and creates a line drawing of the result.

Download MousePath

The program is written in Java, so it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Windows

The Windows version is a Windows executable. Download, unzip, and run the executable.

Ubuntu/Linux

Download the Java version and run it. It’s a JAR (Java Archive), so, for example, in Ubuntu Linux, right click on the file in Nautilus File Manager, and choose “Open with Sun Java 6 Runtime”.

Macintosh

Download the Java version and run the JAR.

Running MousePath

When you open the program, it shows a blank window. Just switch to your other windows, and carry on clicking or doing whatever you normally do.

When you think you have enough mouse movements recorded, come back to the MousePath program and press “s” to save your mouse movements. Or you can just save a screenshot of the MousePath window like I did:

Dots record where you pause, not where you click.

Interpreting MousePath

Anatoly has a Flickr page with screenshots of his mouse movements. Not everything has to have a grand purpose, and this is just sort of neat and interesting.

This could possibly be useful for user interface research, though. For example, looking at the following picture of Anatoly using the Java development environment Eclipse shows pretty clearly where the major mouse-based interaction is:

Resources

New York Times Bits blog article
Anatoly Zenkov
MousePath (Windows)
MousePath (Java)

If you liked this article

If you liked this article, don’t forget to subscribe for updates!

Get updates by RSS (What’s RSS?)

Subscribe by email:

Follow me on Twitter

Top Incoming Search Terms

anatoly zenkov & mouse anatoly zenkov mouse movments anatoly zenkov mouse path anatoly zenkov, software downlaod draw mouse jar track draw your mouse movements follow your mouse path how can i track mouse movement in java? how to trace the mouse movements in windows how to track a mouse http://digitivity.org/817/track-your-mouse-screen-movements-with-mousepath http://digitivity.org/817/track-your-mouse-screen-movements-with-mousepath#comment-1078 in window x, does the application keep mouse movement inkscape 47 downlaod java app to track mouse movement java movements java program draw mouse movement java program to track mouse java program to track spending java track mouse linux mouse path linux mousepath linux record your mouse linux track mouse movement linux track mouse movements over desktop miro install mouse movement java mouse movement program mouse movement program download mouse path anatoly mouse path for mac install mouse path java mouse path java app mouse path letöltés mouse path linux mouse path mac mouse path save mouse path software mouse path updated mouse paths zenkov download mouse track mouse tracker program mousepath mousepath for linux mousepath how to use mousepath java app mousepath linux mousepath on ubuntu mousepath save location mousepath ubuntu mousepath update mousepath zenkov mousepath.exe site:.org php track mouse movement program to draw mouse movements program to trace mouse movement record mouse path trace mousepath track mouse linux track mouse mouvement linux track mouse movement flash screen track mouse movement windows track mouse movements linux track your mouse on your computer tracking mouse movement in java ubuntu mousepath ubuntu track mouse ubuntu track mouse usage ubuntu tracking mouse picture where does mouse path java save where does mousepath save to win32 track mouse movement

Related posts:

1. Frozen Bubble: A Fun and Addictive Marbles Game for Windows, Linux, and Mac Frozen Bubble is a fun game for wasting time while...
2. How to Install Java on Windows Java is an application environment (like, in a way, .NET,...
3. Inkscape Vector Drawing Program Version 0.47 Released Version 0.47 of the open-source vector drawing program, Inkscape, has...
4. Keep Notes and Stay Organized with Zim Desktop Wiki Someone complemented me the other day that I'm pretty organized....
5. Google Is Teaming Up with TiVo to Track DVR Ad-Watching Data Another chapter in the Google Is Evil Chronicles. The LA...

Explore related content: Anatoly Zenkov, GUI, Java, Linux, Mac, MousePath, software, Ubuntu, UI, user interface, Windows

4 Responses to “Track Your Mouse Movements with MousePath”

1. zero cost commissions says:

   September 1, 2010 at 5:31 am

   Actually truly very good web site submit which has obtained me considering. I in no way looked at this from a stage of look at.
2. Andy says:

   April 11, 2011 at 8:52 am

   The article was helpful but short. I wish you had written more on the topic. Thanx still.
3. Best PC Utilities says:

   July 18, 2011 at 1:38 am

   Wow this mouse tracking software is interesting! Now I know most of the time I will be navigating at the top left, due to heavy surfing.
   Best PC Utilities´s last blog ..Full Review: Norton Internet Security 2011 – Best Internet Security Suite In 2011?
4. Lorenzo Dwyar says:

   December 15, 2011 at 11:48 pm

   Yellow journalism on the part of HP in it’s headlines.Cheapest Tera Gold