How can I monitor a Windows directory for changes?

Question

When a change is made within a directory on a Windows system, I need a program to be notified immediately of the change.

Is there some way of executing a program when a change occurs?

I'm not a C/C++/.NET programmer, so if I could set up something so that the change could trigger a batch file then that would be ideal.

Answer 1

Use a FileSystemWatcher

Answer 2

If you want something non-programmatic try GiPo@FileUtilities ... but in that case the question wouldn't belong here!

Answer 3

Use a FileSystemWatcher like below to create a WatcherCreated Event(). I used this to create a Windows Service that watches a Network folder and then emails a specified group ofa anew files arrival.

// Declare a new FILESYSTEMWATCHER
    protected FileSystemWatcher watcher;


 string pathToFolder = @"YourDesired Path Here";


 // Initialize the New FILESYSTEMWATCHER
        Watcher = new FileSystemWatcher {Path = PathToFolder, IncludeSubdirectories = true, Filter = "*.*"};
        Watcher.Created += new FileSystemEventHandler(WatcherCreated);     

        void WatcherCreated(object source , FileSystemEventArgs e)
{Code goes here for when a new file is detected}

Answer 4

There is no utility or program the comes with Windows to do it. Some programming required.

As noted in another answer, .NET's FileSystemWatcher is the easiest approach.

The native API ReadDirectoryChangesW is rather harder to use (requires an understanding of completion ports).