Observer

It can sometimes be difficult to keep track of what certain applications are doing or what files are being processed, but there are utilities out there that make it a lot easier to track these changes.

Observer is one of them, a very simple program that monitors a certain folder on your PC and lets you know when files are created, modified, deleted or renamed. It still needs some improvements, but it is very simple to use and fully portable.

The application isn’t complex to use, as you only need to provide a local path and specify which actions should be tracked. The program can scan for modified, created, deleted or renamed files.

If any of the selected actions are detected, they will be displayed in a log in the main window. You can see the path, time, access type and access count, but you do not have the option of exporting the log.

While the utility does allow you to exclude certain subfolders from the scan, the function did not seem to work correctly during our tests, as file activity in the excluded directory was still shown. It is not possible to remove any of the excluded paths.

Moreover, Observer is not capable of monitoring multiple paths at once, although you can launch multiple instances to get around this limitation.

Lastly, it would be great if users had the option of minimizing the application to the system tray in order to reduce taskbar clutter.

In short, Observer is a relatively simple program designed to track and report file activity in a certain location on your PC. It has a few issues at present, which would need to be resolved in future releases, but it can still prove useful in some situations.