Windows – How to monitor a Windows directory for changes

directorymonitoringwindows

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.

Best Solution

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 on arrival of new files.

    // 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.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
    watcher.Created += new FileSystemEventHandler(WatcherCreated);

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