I have some code that uses FileSystemWatcher to monitor file changes outside of my application.
On Windows 7, using .NET 4, the below code would detect when a file had been edited and saved in an application like Notepad, while my app was running. However, this logic isn't working using .NET 4 on Windows 8. Specifically, the FileSystemWatcher's Changed event never fires.
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
const string FilePath = @"C:\users\craig\desktop\notes.txt";
if (File.Exists(FilePath))
{
Console.WriteLine("Test file exists.");
}
var fsw = new FileSystemWatcher();
fsw.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.Attributes;
fsw.Path = Path.GetDirectoryName(FilePath);
fsw.Filter = Path.GetFileName(FilePath);
fsw.Changed += OnFileChanged;
fsw.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
// Block exiting.
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void OnFileChanged(object sender, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
if (File.Exists(e.FullPath))
{
Console.WriteLine("File change reported!");
}
}
I understand that I can alter the NotifyFilter to also include NotifyFilters.LastWrite, which can solve my problem. However, I want to understand why this code worked on Windows 7 but now fails to fire the Changed event on Windows 8. I'm also curious to know if there's a way to restore my Windows 7 FileSystemWatcher behavior when running in Windows 8 (without changing the NotifyFilter).
