FileSystemWatcher help please....

[Jim Hubbard]

I want to develop an installation watcher to watch over programs as they
install themselves to the PC.

The FileSystemWatcher will enable me to see all files created or changed
within any subdirecty of any specified path. But, that's *too* much
information. Windows is constantly changing files and I don't want any of
that information (besides.....all of that info could cause a buffer overflow
in the FileSystemWatcher).

Is there a way to watch a PROGRAM's activity on the PC. Like.....is there a
way to choose a program, launch the program and record everything it does to
the file system and registry without having to monitor every folder and
subfolder with FileSystemWatcher?

I just am interested in the changes made by the installation program for use
in a freeware uninstaller written entirely in .Net.

One reason is that 90% of installation programs leave registry info even
when they are "uninstalled". To me, uninstall means "remove all of your
crap from my PC". Evidentially, most software manufacturers feel
differently.

 

[Ray Cassick \(Home\)]

You might want to do someting like this...

1) Setup a registry watcher that gets triggered upon additions to the
reigistry hive.

2) Setup some kind of hook to see what someone runs a msi file or a file
along the name of setup.exe or something.

 

[Jim Hubbard]

re: 1) Any ideas on the code that would be used to set up the registry
watcher? Right now, all I know to do is read the registry before and after
the install and compare them. But, what if another application (running in
the background) makes a registry change or addition?

That's why I need a way to monitor the system events of a particular
process.

re: 2) this is not needed as the setup will be launched from the
application.