Folder Monitor Application

I have been working on an application to monitor a folder for new files. The client required a way of monitoring for new electronic faxes and then displaying a prominent message on a monitoring computer. The message will appear on screen while the monitored folder has 1 or more files in it.

The application is called Folder Monitor and is available for Windows based computers only. There is a settings file called ProjFolderMonitor.ini. Through this settings file a number of parameters can be altered.

Below is a list of paramters that can be changed in the settings file, along with examples

Folder that requires monitoring. Program will give an error if the folder is not valid
MonitorFolder=\\server\folder\

The message that you want to display on the monitoring computer
Message=Fax Waiting

By default the message will fade in and out while there are files in the monitored folder.

FadeLow is the lowest fade level. It must be more than 0 and less than 255
FadeLow=10

FadeHigh is the highest fade level. It must be more than 0 and less than 255
FadeHigh=200

This value sets the checking interval in milliseconds
FadeInterval=100

This value sets the step of fade in / fade out
FadeStep=10

The font size of the message
FontSize=120

Install Procedure

Download the zip file of the program, there are 2 files to be unzipped. These can be store anywhere as long as both of them are in the same folder. Finally change the parameters in ProjFolderMonitor.ini to suit your needs. You must change MonitorFolder to point to a folder on your computer or your network before starting the program. The rest of the parameters have been set to valid values.

After setting the MonitorFolder parameter and starting the program, there will be an icon in the corner of the screen. You can right-click on this icon to exit the program.

If there are files in the MonitorFolder then the configured message will start to flash in the middle of the screen. This will continue until the MonitorFolder is empty.

I hope you get some use out of this program. If you use it, if you find a bug or if you want more information about it then please post a comment.