Filesystemwatcher doesn't work with appdata\local and appdata\roaming

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Well i have made a simple windows service that monitor several dirs but Appdata\Local and Appdata\Roaming doesn't works!!!

I don't know why, really.

Intresting that if i made an application (not a service) it works...

What I have tried:

watcher.Path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)

watcher2.Path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData)

Posted 7-Mar-16 21:49pm

Member 12332928

Updated 8-Mar-16 1:10am

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Richard MacCutchan 8-Mar-16 4:23am

The AppData directory is specific to each user, so unless your service runs under that user's account, you probably will not see it. Log the results you get for those two paths to see what they are.

Member 12332928 8-Mar-16 4:41am

I can agree to you with the ApplicationData path but the LocalApplicationData (Appdata/Roaming) it's the same for all users.

Plus i run as administrator, i can see the dir! It's strange, there is something related to that specific dir, eg. i can monitor c:\Windows and Windows\System32 ...

Maybe i must monitor the Appdata instead of Appdata/Local or Roaming...

EDIT:

the Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData) return when execute as service:

C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local

Ok so i have to retrieve the current user login, i think the only method is to read the registry or make an app that write into a file the current user (Environment.Username property)

Richard MacCutchan 8-Mar-16 4:59am

It's not the same for all users, each user has their own individual folders. But the issue is what is being returned from your calls to Environment.GetFolderPath.

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Member 12332928 · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-08T01:10:00

Solution 1

Ok solved using WMI Class, works :)

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394189(v=vs.85).aspx

Posted 8-Mar-16 1:10am

Member 12332928

v2