Monitoring file management events

interfact · Post by **interfact** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 10:35 pm

Folks,

I am new to this impressive program so please forgive this basic question.

What I would like to do is monitor a folder, in real time, for files that
are added, renamed or deleted. By real time I mean that I want to respond to the action taken by the user as they do it rather than 5 minutes later based on a polling or wait period.

For example, with regard to file renaming I need to be able to monitor all of the ways in which this can be achieved including:
* right-clicking on the file name in Explorer and clicking Rename
* left-clicking on the file name twice
* using a file save / open browser in an application such as Word and
renaming the file as above
* left-clicking on the file name in the Explorer window and clicking File,
Rename.

Can anyone advise if this is possible and, if so, how so.

Thanks.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 10:42 pm

First question I have is what operating system are you looking at?

Is folder on system with same OS? If not, what is also OS of system with folders?

interfact · Post by **interfact** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 10:52 pm

Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

I hope that there would be a solution for the the general Windows platform but I currently working with a Win2K Server network and XP Home and Win 98 workstations.

interfact · Post by **interfact** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 10:55 pm

Oops! Just noticed that I didn't answer all of your question. I would like to be able to monitor folders/files on all 3 OSs.

Thanks.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:37 pm

You might want to look at FileMon from SysInternals. This is a freeware program.

Filemon is an application that monitors and displays all file system activity on a system. It has advanced filtering and search capabilities that make it a powerful tool for exploring the way Windows works, seeing how applications use the files and DLLs, or tracking down problems in system or application configurations.

It uses wildcards in its filters. For example, if the include filter is "c:\temp", and the exclude filter is "c:\temp\subdir", all references to files and directories under c:\temp, except to those under c:\temp\subdir will be monitored. Additional filter options select or deselect read, write or open operations.

Filemon works on NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME.

You could start FileMon with Macro Scheduler and use the results of the output to trigger actions in Macro Scheduler for you, based on what is happening. The output is very busy at first, but I think you will be able to get a handle on it for your needs.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:44 pm

Many thanks Bob.

I will have a look at it.

Cheers,

Peter.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 12:16 am

I guess the guest signed Peter and interfact are one and the same?

Don't you hate it when you forget to log in?