FolderSpy is a handy, easy to use folder monitoring utility that will allow you to keep track of the changes that might occur in a certain folder. Ever found yourself in a position to know about a change in your hard disk? Ever wanted to find (with proof) if your younger brother deleted your file? Ever caught yourself wanting to spy your friend computer? FolderSpy lets you do all things easily.

The main interface is minimalistic both in looks and in functions. It holds no hidden options as everything is laid out right in front of you. Adding the locations you want to monitor for any sort of change that should occur requires minimum effort from your part. As soon as you press the “Add item” button in the lower left part of the screen, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can define the monitoring parameters.

The options available are simple and in order to make them comprehensible for all the users out there, the developer added a brief description (sometimes accompanied by examples) to each of them. Once you have typed in the path you want to be supervised, it’s time to set up the file formats to be monitored. We did not expect this sort of detail given the small size of the application, but it is possible to direct its spying abilities only towards a specific type of files.

File filters in FolderSpy support wildcards (* and ?) so that a larger pool of formats is covered by the same monitoring rule and save you some time, but you can also type in the exact file formats you want the application to keep a keen eye on. Last on the list of settings you can make is the possibility to execute a program whenever modifications of the spied files are recorded. This can turn out to be a useful option if you want the change of a file or folder to trigger a command or program. For instance, some users may employ it to trigger commands such as for deleting temporary files or start programs to alert them that there’s been a change in the monitored location.

In order to preserve all the settings you make (which should not take more than one minute), you’ll have to save everything and restart the application The buttons for both actions are present in the settings window of FolderSpy, where you can also revise the monitoring parameters. In case you are not familiar with this procedure and simply choose to close the settings window, the application will prompt you with an explanatory message. This is not exactly intuitive, but at least you get a warning on what should be done so that you get the desired result.