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I've looked at a few similar answers here on SU and Google, but all of the solutions mentioned were either outdated, buggy, or required a greater understanding of Windows management.

I handle document submittals for my company and I often find myself checking network folders for new additions/changes to be submitted to the customer. I would like a program that handles this automatically, and sends me notifications either by email or pop-up.

Here are some of the options I have tried, and the reasons they have failed. Please offer a better solution if you know any:

  • HDD-Profiler via MakeUseOf article - This may be the most solid solution of any I have found. However, this does not appear to run automatically, so it would not really solve my problem.
  • ShareWatch - Could not get it to find any network folders, but this could be operator error. Nevertheless, this program does not offer notifications or logging, which is a necessity.
  • ShareWatcher - Ugh, buggy. Found my network folder, however it takes about 2-3 minutes to find changes in a SINGLE folder.
  • superuser question similar to mine. However, the linked articles here and here seem to only cover local drive monitoring. I need network drives specifically. This link references options mentioned above.
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    Have you considered a version control system? Even something relatively simple (and free) like SVN with Trac might work. You can subscribe to the RSS feed of the revision log to be notified of any changes.
    – sblair
    Aug 17, 2011 at 20:45
  • Good suggestion. I have considered this for document control, just never took the time to fully learn it. Might be a good reason to put it into practice. Aug 17, 2011 at 22:00

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I didn't notice Directory Monitor in your list.

I've not used it, at all really, but it seems to do precisely what you want.

It's free, as in beer. Beyond that, you're on your own.

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FileHamster might do what you want. I author a tool called FolderTrack that is similar but it does not do automatic popups or email.

Search for continuous data protection and you should find some products that do what you want.

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