How can I restrict time spent on a certain application?

Question

As the question says really. The application is on a local Windows 7 machine.

I'm looking for a free application that can do this sort of thing. It should either time when the window is in focus or when the application is running. Thanks.

Answer 1

Depending on your situation, this could be overkill. I find AutoIt and similar programs are useful for tasks like this.

Answer 2

To expand on Garet's answer:

Depending on how the programs you are looking to restrict are built, you have a few options with AutoIt. Look specifically at the functions WinWaitActive, WinGetProcess, WinClose, WinKill, ProcessClose, TimerInit, TimerDiff, Sleep.

A combination of these will let you see when a specific window opens, time how long it is open, and kill it when it reaches a certain point in time. They will also let you continue to kill it anytime it opens until another specified time period is exhausted.