The programs mentioned before only verify the integrity of files when they are executed, while a program like Track Folder Changes displays the changes the moment they happen.

When you first start the program you will notice that all directories on the root drive are monitored by it by default. You may want to change that to reduce the noise created by the application. Just click on the folder browser icon to select a folder with the mouse, or enter a desired folder manually in the form to start the monitoring.

All previously displayed changes are reset the moment you select a new folder to monitor. You could copy a new file into the folder to test if the monitoring is picking up the changes, but it is usually not necessary.

The program uses color codes to distinguish between new and deleted folder changes. New files are highlighted in green, manipulations in blue and removed files in an orange tone. The program displays the directory structure if changes happen in subfolders of the selected root folder.

Be aware that Track Folder Changes does not detect all file manipulations. It detected when files where added, deleted or moved with accuracy. File modifications where not always detected on the other hand. (If you are one of those users you may want to take a closer look at Directory Monitor which can detect those file manipulations as well)

You can download Track Folder Changes from the program’s Codeplex project website. Please note that it requires a recent version of the Microsoft .Net Framework to be installed on the system.

Enter Directory Monitor, a free program for Windows to monitor one or multiple directories. When you start the program for the first time you will see the main interface with an option to immediately add a directory for monitoring.

You can either paste a folder path into the form at the top or use the folder browser to pick a directory for monitoring. A click on Add starts the monitoring of the selected folder. All folders added this way are monitored for new file events only.

A right-click on a folder opens the context menu with options to edit or delete the selected folder. The edit directory entry opens a new menu with options to change the events that the software monitors. Additional options include file modifications, deletions and renames. The program will monitor subdirectories by default, can record the user information that made the change or execute an application when a change is recognized.

All changes are by default displayed in the lower half of the program window. This log can be saved, copied or cleared from the Log menu at the top.

The program options and settings can be used for advanced configurations. This includes options to set global file or folder patterns that you want included or excluded. Handy if you only want to monitor document formats instead of all formats in the selected directories.

The default monitoring interval is set to 180 seconds, which means that Directory Monitor will check the selected directories in that interval for changes. It is possible to decrease or increase that interval in the settings.

Directory Monitor is a handy tool for Windows users. It could use notifications, sound or visual for example, to further assist and notify the user about changes made to directories that are monitored.

The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. It can be downloaded as a normal installer, web installer or portable version without installation from the developer website.

Whatever the reason, a portable folder monitoring software like Watch 4 Folder might be exactly what they are looking for.

folder monitoring

The program can be configured to watch one folder including all of its subfolders and files. Setup is a four part process that begins with the selection of a folder in the build-in folder browser. The events that the user wants to monitor are selected in step 2.

Here it is possible to select file or folder create, delete or modifications, free space changes, association changes or media inserts and removals although we are not sure what the last two actually monitor.

Events are configured in the third step. Possibilities include writing a log file that contains every change since the beginning of the monitoring, executing a program or batch file or displaying a popup message whenever a change is noticed.

One interesting option would be to run a cleanup software or backup software if a change is recorded to either remove additional files or restore a previous state.

The Start monitoring button starts the actual folder monitoring, the program can be minimized to the system tray from that moment on.

The monitoring software uses roughly 17 Megabytes in the background, not that low but still acceptable for most usage scenarios.

Watch 4 Folder is a portable software for the Windows operating system. It is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows and can be downloaded from the developer’s website over at Lee Lu Soft.

It only takes a minute to select the folders or services that should be monitored. The functionality is limited to the following. Services can be monitored and the computer program can try to restart them if they are not running. It will notify the administrator after a set amount of failed attempts.

Folders of connected hard drives can also be monitored by FS Guard. It is possible to monitor them for size changes. If the size changes the system administrator will be informed as well.

The software is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista and will most likely run on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 as well although that is not mentioned on the developer’s homepage. It Pros will miss features that they are used to work with like executing programs or taking screenshots of the situation.

The monitoring software FS Guard might come in handy on the other hand for users who are satisfied with these basic options.

Watch 4 Folder is a lightweight software program to monitor folders in Windows. The program can be configured to monitor one main folder for the following six different types of changes:

• file name changes
• directory name changes
• attribute changes
• size changes
• last modification date changes
• security changes

It can furthermore write all changes to a log file and execute a script or program if changes are detected. The computer program uses less than 4 Megabytes of computer memory while running. The developer did not include a list of compatible operating systems. It worked fine in Windows XP SP3 and will probably work as well in older and newer versions of the Windows operating system.

So how does Folder RSS work? A click on folder-rss.exe will explain the command line basics. It basically involves launching the same executable with a series of parameters that define what to watch and how to watch it. The basic command is folder-rss.exe [parameters] [folder to watch] [output file path]. The command folder-rss.exe c:\downloads c:\downloads.xml would create an RSS feed containing the latest changes to the c:\downloads directory. The RSS feed would be accessible by loading downloads.xml (or file://localhost/C:\download.xml)

Folder RSS comes with a set of optional parameters that can be used as filters. It is possible to to configure settings to monitor only files, folders or a specific file extension. It can also be used to change the maximum age of the files, the maximum amount of files that get displayed and to include Read only, Hidden or System files.

The RSS feed is not automatically updating itself. It has to be executed to update it. This can be done with a simple batch script that the user clicks on or that gets added to a task scheduler.

Directory Monitor is a simply application that can monitor folders for one or multiple of the following four events: File additions, file modifications, file deletions and file renames. The user basically selects at least one folder to monitor and the events that he wants monitored in that folder.

The software supports local folders, network folders and even hidden shares. Specific file patterns can be excluded from being monitored. Text files can be excluded for instance by adding the *.txt filter in the application options. The main issue with text filters is that excluded patterns are global, meaning they are active for all monitored folders.

The interval that is used to check directories for changes can be changed in the options as well. The default value is 180 seconds. One interesting feature is the import and export feature which makes it possible to export monitored folders to import them on the same or another computer at a later point in time (lets you configure rules for all systems once to save time).

Programs can be executed when an event occurs, which can be another interesting option for advanced users.

Update: Directory Monitor is no longer available at Codeplex. We have changed the download link which is now pointing directly to the developer website. There you find full and web installers, a portable version as well as video tutorials that demonstrate the program’s functionality. Please keep in mind that the software requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 to be installed on the system.