Folder "drop box" with custom behavior

Question

I'm thinking of trying to create a "drop box" application that can automatically organize files as you drop them into a folder. I always end up with a bunch of random files on my desktop, and I think it would be useful to be able to drag them onto an icon/folder on the desktop and have them automatically sorted into other locations based on some rules (file extensions, naming conventions, etc.)

I'm not sure how to implement this. Can anyone point me to any resources/tips on how to accomplish something like this? Maybe some sort of drag and drop folder extension?

One idea would be to have a background process that periodically checks a folder and just moves files around, but it would be cool to have this happen automagically w/out a background process.

Thanks

Answer 1

In C# FileSystemWatcher is your friend, check a little tutorial. It's just a wrapper over ReadDirectoryChangesW on Win32 so you could use if you use another language. Linux provide the same via dnotify.