Looking for a way to monitor a folder in Windows 8? Maybe you want to see when a new file is added to the folder, when a file is deleted or when a file is edited? There is a new utility from Nirsoft called FolderChangesView that lets you monitor a folder and it’s subfolders for any type of change.
It’s a tiny utility that uses very little memory and works on any version of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows 8, 32-bit or 64-bit. You also don’t need to install it, you can just run it independently. When you run the EXE file, it will ask you which folder you want to monitor:
It doesn’t have a browse button to select the folder, which would have been nice, but when you start typing the path to the folder, it does autofill the paths for you.
You can also check the box to monitor all subfolders under the specified folder, which will do exactly that. Once you click OK, you’ll see that the green play button is now greyed out and the red stop button is clickable. This means that the folder is being monitored for changes, modifications and new files.
If you make any changes to the folder, they immediately show up in the table with the filename and a count value under the appropriate column header. So if I delete a file, it will show a 1 under Deleted Count, etc.
If you created a new folder, then you’ll see that the extension column is blank. Otherwise, you can quickly see what new files were created, which ones were edited and which ones were deleted. Note that this program will also capture information about any temp files that happen to show up in the folder. When I opened an Excel file, it created a temp file called ~$Book1.xlsx, 5BA0F100 and B7E20E25.tmp. Unfortunately, there is currently no option to hide temp files from the monitoring process yet.
The other downside to the program is that there is no way to remove it from the Windows taskbar! You pretty much have to leave it open on the taskbar in order for it to capture data. I was hoping you could minimize it down to the system tray/notification area, but when you click on the X, it just shuts down the program. Since the program is new, I’m sure they’ll be updating it soon with new features, but for right now, it doesn’t work unless it’s running very visibly on your taskbar! If you want to do some stealth folder monitoring, this program won’t work for you.
However, I played around with the program and found that it was able to monitor a network folder for changes! So technically, you can run it on your PC and have it monitor another folder that is on a file server or on another computer as long as you map it as a network drive. If you can map a network drive, you can use this program to monitor folders remotely.
Lastly, you can go to Options and choose the columns you want to see. By default, all of them are enabled.
Overall, it’s a simple program that can be used to quickly monitor a folder locally on your computer or remotely on another machine. It’s also relatively new, so future versions should have more and better features that make the program a little more polished. Enjoy!
It’s a tiny utility that uses very little memory and works on any version of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows 8, 32-bit or 64-bit. You also don’t need to install it, you can just run it independently. When you run the EXE file, it will ask you which folder you want to monitor:
It doesn’t have a browse button to select the folder, which would have been nice, but when you start typing the path to the folder, it does autofill the paths for you.
You can also check the box to monitor all subfolders under the specified folder, which will do exactly that. Once you click OK, you’ll see that the green play button is now greyed out and the red stop button is clickable. This means that the folder is being monitored for changes, modifications and new files.
If you make any changes to the folder, they immediately show up in the table with the filename and a count value under the appropriate column header. So if I delete a file, it will show a 1 under Deleted Count, etc.
If you created a new folder, then you’ll see that the extension column is blank. Otherwise, you can quickly see what new files were created, which ones were edited and which ones were deleted. Note that this program will also capture information about any temp files that happen to show up in the folder. When I opened an Excel file, it created a temp file called ~$Book1.xlsx, 5BA0F100 and B7E20E25.tmp. Unfortunately, there is currently no option to hide temp files from the monitoring process yet.
The other downside to the program is that there is no way to remove it from the Windows taskbar! You pretty much have to leave it open on the taskbar in order for it to capture data. I was hoping you could minimize it down to the system tray/notification area, but when you click on the X, it just shuts down the program. Since the program is new, I’m sure they’ll be updating it soon with new features, but for right now, it doesn’t work unless it’s running very visibly on your taskbar! If you want to do some stealth folder monitoring, this program won’t work for you.
However, I played around with the program and found that it was able to monitor a network folder for changes! So technically, you can run it on your PC and have it monitor another folder that is on a file server or on another computer as long as you map it as a network drive. If you can map a network drive, you can use this program to monitor folders remotely.
Lastly, you can go to Options and choose the columns you want to see. By default, all of them are enabled.
Overall, it’s a simple program that can be used to quickly monitor a folder locally on your computer or remotely on another machine. It’s also relatively new, so future versions should have more and better features that make the program a little more polished. Enjoy!
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