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I need to set up some sort of a script on my Vista machine, so that whenever a file is added to a particular folder, it automatically triggers a background process that operates on the file. (The background process is just a command-line utility that takes the file name as an argument, along with some other predefined options.)

I'd like to do this using native Windows features, if possible, for performance and maintenance reasons. I've looked into using Task Scheduler, but after perusing the trigger system for a while, I haven't been able to make much sense of it, and I'm not even sure if it's capable of doing what I need.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

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8 Answers 8

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At work we use Powershell to monitor folders.
It can be used since Windows Vista (.NET and PowerShell is preinstalled) without any additional tools.

This script monitors a certain folder and writes a logfile. You can replace the action and do whatever you want e.g call an external tool

Example log file

11/23/2014 19:22:04, Created, D:\source\New Text Document.txt
11/23/2014 19:22:09, Changed, D:\source\New Text Document.txt
11/23/2014 19:22:09, Changed, D:\source\New Text Document.txt
11/23/2014 19:22:14, Deleted, D:\source\New Text Document.txt

StartMonitoring.ps1

### SET FOLDER TO WATCH + FILES TO WATCH + SUBFOLDERS YES/NO
    $watcher = New-Object System.IO.FileSystemWatcher
    $watcher.Path = "D:\source"
    $watcher.Filter = "*.*"
    $watcher.IncludeSubdirectories = $true
    $watcher.EnableRaisingEvents = $true  

### DEFINE ACTIONS AFTER AN EVENT IS DETECTED
    $action = { $path = $Event.SourceEventArgs.FullPath
                $changeType = $Event.SourceEventArgs.ChangeType
                $logline = "$(Get-Date), $changeType, $path"
                Add-content "D:\log.txt" -value $logline
              }    
### DECIDE WHICH EVENTS SHOULD BE WATCHED 
    Register-ObjectEvent $watcher "Created" -Action $action
    Register-ObjectEvent $watcher "Changed" -Action $action
    Register-ObjectEvent $watcher "Deleted" -Action $action
    Register-ObjectEvent $watcher "Renamed" -Action $action
    while ($true) {sleep 5}

How to use

  1. Create a new text file
  2. Copy & paste the above code
  3. Change the following settings to your own needs:
    • folder to monitor: $watcher.Path = "D:\source"
    • file filter to include only certain file types: $watcher.Filter = "*.*"
    • include subdirectories yes/no: $watcher.IncludeSubdirectories = $true
  4. Save and rename it to StartMonitoring.ps1
  5. Start monitoring by Right click » Execute with PowerShell

To stop monitoring, it's enough to close your PowerShell window

Further reading

4
  • Works nicely but what is the function of the stop script? I get on errors: "Unregister-Event : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'SourceIdentifier' because it is null." pastebin.com/ugLB3a69 Nov 18, 2016 at 13:45
  • @JanStanstrup I probably confused more people with the second script. I'll delete it. It's enough to simply close your StartWatching.ps1 window to stop the monitoring. The second script does only work if you include it in your first script to save the variables $created, $changed, $deleted or $renamed
    – nixda
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:59
  • Thanks for the answer. Can anyone suggest if we could use cmd prompt as I want to upload the files to github when changed Aug 19, 2019 at 8:38
  • Combining this answer with A PowerShell Windows service, you won't have to leave a PowerShell window open to watch a directory. Apr 23, 2020 at 18:26
8

Thanks all, for the suggestions.

I ended up writing a VBScript that was roughly based on Linker3000's idea of polling the folder, and using the Task Scheduler to have it run on startup. I ended up getting the basic syntax from this resource and made the requisite tweaks.

I'd still like to optimize it at some point, having the guts of the script run on an event-driven system, but I've run out of time to work on it, and, well, this is good enough.

Here's the script, in case anyone's interested (with the irrelevant conversion segment redacted for clarity):

' FOLDER TO MONITOR
strFolder = "J:\monitored-folder"

' FREQUENCY TO CHECK IT, IN SECONDS
nFrequency = 10

strComputer = "."
strQueryFolder = Replace(strFolder, "\", "\\\\")
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" &     strComputer & "\root\cimv2") 
Set colMonitoredEvents = objWMIService.ExecNotificationQuery ("SELECT * FROM __InstanceCreationEvent WITHIN " & nFrequency & " WHERE Targetinstance ISA 'CIM_DirectoryContainsFile' and TargetInstance.GroupComponent='Win32_Directory.Name=""" & strQueryFolder & """'") 

Do 
    Set objLatestEvent = colMonitoredEvents.NextEvent
    strNewFile = objLatestEvent.TargetInstance.PartComponent
    arrNewFile = Split(strNewFile, "=")
    strFilePath = arrNewFile(1)
    strFilePath = Replace(strFilePath, "\\", "\")
    strFilePath = Replace(strFilePath, Chr(34), "")
    strFileName = Replace(strFilePath, strFolder, "")
    strTempFilePath = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").GetSpecialFolder(2) & "\TEMP.M4A"

    ' DO THE OPERATION STUFF
    ' ...
Loop

(Also, I don't want to leave this question officially unanswered -- and I hate to accept my own answer to the question -- but I did upvote Linker3000's answer as a thanks!)

0
6

You seem to be on the right lines - you could use the task scheduler to run a .bat or .cmd file on a regular basis and that file could start with a line to check for the existence of the required file - in fact, I'd check for the non existence of the file; for example:

@ECHO OFF
REM Example file
IF NOT EXIST C:\SOMEWHERE\SUBFOLDER\THISFILE.THS EXIT 1
REM All this gets done if the file exists...
:
:
EXIT 0

You could also modify this code and have it run in a loop with a, say, 1 minute delay in the loop and then put a reference to the batch file in the Windows startup folder:

@ECHO OFF
REM Example file
:LOOP    
IF NOT EXIST C:\SOMEWHERE\SUBFOLDER\THISFILE.THS GOTO SKIP01
REM All this gets done if the file exists...
:
:
:SKIP01
REM Crafty 1 minute delay...
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 10 -w 6000 >NUL
GOTO LOOP

There are other ways of achieving a delay according to the version of Windows running and what additional resource kits have been installed, but the PING command pretty much works under all circumstances. In the PING command above, 10 phantom PINGS are executed with a delay of 6000ms (ie: 6 seconds) between them, you can play with these values to achieve the delay you need between batch file loops.

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  • nice idea.. btw, C:\>ping 1.1.1.1 -n 10 -w 6000 for some reason took 1min 10 seconds on my computer. but -n 1 -w 60000 took 1min exactly.
    – barlop
    Dec 29, 2010 at 12:14
  • @barlop - the ten second discrepancy is due to the -n 10 vs -n 1.
    – user3463
    Dec 30, 2010 at 2:24
  • @Randolph Potter Isn't 10 lots of 6 seconds, 60 seconds? and -n 10 that you use, should mean 10 times.
    – barlop
    Dec 30, 2010 at 9:13
  • You're probably right. I take it back and blame my blond hair.
    – user3463
    Dec 30, 2010 at 20:52
  • I ended up using this loop for a monitoring batch IF NOT EXIST C:\NO_SUCH_FILE_EVER.foo. Hackish, but it works. Thanks for the idea.
    – Snekse
    Jul 1, 2012 at 0:29
6

If the action is just to copy changed files, you can use robocopy /MON:1

I don't know if robocopy uses FileSystemWatcher or works by polling for changes.

3
  • Error: Invalid Parameter: /mon
    – Roland
    Mar 30, 2020 at 14:12
  • ok, the option is not /MON, but /MON:1. I tried, and the default is also /MOT:1, for polling every 1 minute. /MOT:0 also polls every 1 minute. This clears up the issue of FileSystemWatcher: no, it does polling.
    – Roland
    Apr 1, 2020 at 8:31
5

Also found watchman that seems to be pretty big, and a smaller watchexec I haven't tried.

Watchman feels nice and programmatic. A CLI utility for power users.

4

You might look at DropIt (free). The program is appropriate for processing incoming files in some automated ways. You can move, copy, delete, and pass parameters to other command line programs to convert images, split PDFs, etc.

2
  • quite a few similar file and dir monitors at portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=65
    – Scott R
    Apr 19, 2020 at 13:55
  • What's your point though? Did you see if any of the programs do what the OP wants? Otherwise, what's the point of linking to a bunch of folder watch programs... Dive deeper and provide an answer.
    – Sun
    Apr 20, 2020 at 16:53
1

Or you could use Watch 4 Folder. Apparently it's Freeware, portable, and compatible with Windows 7. I haven't tried it, but found it through a web search and thought I'd pass it on.

I like the VBS script too, also featured on the site.

3
  • Unfortunately only the paid version is portable
    – nixda
    Jul 12, 2013 at 10:10
  • Was thinking about using this software. Would you trust it to monitor a network share with important files from many users? Jul 22, 2015 at 4:56
  • The free version of Watch4Folder has only one "sample" entry which can be configured.
    – PeterCo
    Jul 4, 2019 at 16:32
0

We use the commercial tool (i.e. not free) Folder Poll from http://www.myassays.com/folder-poll to do just this. It's a Windows application that includes a user-friendly manager application to allow easy configuration. Also, there is an XML configuration option. The actual folder polling runs as a Windows service (so starts automatically on each restart). When a new file is detected in a polled folder an application can be launched automatically (you can specify your own custom command line arguments). It can do other things like copy/move files too. Also, activity can be logged to a log file and there are other advanced operations.

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