VBScript to monitor directory structure changes

There a number of good examples at the Hey, Scripting Guy site at Microsoft TechNet that could be adapted to do what you want.

A couple that look interesting

• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/apr08/hey0421.mspx
• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/jan07/hey0126.mspx

Hi Scott:
Thanks for your reply.  
I used the code below from the links you sent me.  It works fine when someone creates a new folder in the directory, but it does nothing when someone deletes a folder.

strComputer = "."
 
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
 
Set colMonitoredEvents = objWMIService.ExecNotificationQuery _
    ("SELECT * FROM __InstanceCreationEvent WITHIN 10 WHERE " _
        & "TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_SubDirectory' and " _
            & "TargetInstance.GroupComponent= " _
                & "'Win32_Directory.Name=""C:\\\\Scripts""'")
 
Do While True
    Set objEventObject = colMonitoredEvents.NextEvent()
    Wscript.Echo objEventObject.TargetInstance.PartComponent
Loop
 
 
 
Set colMonitoredEvents = objWMIService.ExecNotificationQuery _
    ("SELECT * FROM __InstanceCreationEvent WITHIN 10 WHERE " _
        & "TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_Subdirectory' and " _
            & "TargetInstance.GroupComponent= " _
                & "'Win32_Directory.Name=""C:\\\\Scripts""'")
Set objEventObject = colMonitoredEvents.NextEvent()
 
 
Do While True
    Set objEventObject = colMonitoredEvents.NextEvent()
    strNewFolder = objEventObject.TargetInstance.PartComponent
    arrNewFolder = Split(strNewFolder, "=")
    strNewFolder = arrNewFolder(1)
    strNewFolder = Replace(strNewFolder, "\\", "\")
    strNewFolder = Replace(strNewFolder, Chr(34), "")
    Wscript.Echo strNewFolder
Loop
 
SWbemServicesEx: Quota violation

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One thing that is definitely wrong is that __InstanceCreationEvent needs to be changed to __InstanceDeletionEvent. However, even when I did that I couldn't get the deletion event to fire either... I also found four or script variations on this theme and couldn't get them to work either, though all were from reputable sources. There must be a secret sauce that I'm missing.

Back to your original question, I had a different impression of what you wanted. I thought the second link I provided above might be more useful, i.e., building an array of all directories as the baseline for future comparisons. You could store the array data in a text file or spreadsheet, then once a day you could compare your new list with the old list. This would definitely highlight both additions and deletions (though the compare logic could get a bit tricky if you expect a lot of changes).  Nothing wrong with real-time monitoring but if you want a once-a-day list, the approach would be a bit different.

adamssap -- let me know whether my presumption in the previous post is correct that you really want a "baseline" list against which to compare every day, i.e., that you don't really want to monitor folder activity in real time. If so, I think I've come up with a reasonably easy way to accomplish this... not fully developed yet but the basic ideas works.

Hi Scott:

Thanks for your time and reply.  I am basically looking for real-time monitoring the folder activity.  I am sorry for not being specific/clear in my original question.

Hi Scott:

Hats off to your good work.  Folder creation and file monitoring scripts working perfectly fine.  I will wait for Folder deletion part from you and close this question.  I really appreciate your help.

Thanks and God bless you.

Well, I still can't find a way to monitor folder deletion directly. I think your best bet is to use the pair of scripts I posted on 4/12/2009 -- run the first to create a file containing your baseline directory structure, and use the Windows scheduler to run the second one as often as you need an update.

I think that's the best I can do!

Scott

Thanks a lot, Scott