Monitoring downloads

Off-topic posts of interest to the "Everything" community.
Post Reply
harryray2
Posts: 1104
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2016 9:56 am

Monitoring downloads

Post by harryray2 »

Does anyone know of a programme that will monitor files downloaded to the PC? Preferably with some indication of where the download came from.

I know I can see from Everything new files created but I'm looking for a monitor that will alert me in real time.
horst.epp
Posts: 1445
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 3:24 pm

Re: Monitoring downloads

Post by horst.epp »

There are many free tools to monitor folder updates and alert you for changes
but none of them can tell you the origin.
therube
Posts: 4972
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Monitoring downloads

Post by therube »

You've been to NirSoft, FolderChangesView.
(Thought it won't tell where from.)

You've been to NirSoft ;-).
Any number of TCP related programs. Maybe one can help point something out, or in correlation with FolderChangesView.

SocketSniff too.
Maybe WebSiteSniffer.
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Monitoring downloads

Post by NotNull »

horst.epp wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:45 pm There are many free tools to monitor folder updates and alert you for changes
but none of them can tell you the origin.
Why not? All of them should be able to tell the origin, thanks to the Zone.Identifier datastream.

Quick (CMD) demo:
(make sure ES.exe is "connected to" Everything 1.5)

Code: Select all

@Echo off & setlocal

echo.   PRESS CTRL+C TO STOP

:LOOP
	for /f "usebackq delims=" %%x in (` "c:\path to\ES.exe" "c:\folder to check"  alternate-data-stream-names:Zone.Identifier dm:last3min`) Do (
		echo ---------------------------------------------------------
		echo %%x
		echo ---------------------------------------------------------
		more < "%%x:Zone.Identifier"| findstr /i "Url="
		echo. 
	)
	> nul timeout /t 10
goto :LOOP

Output:

Code: Select all

T:\>dl.cmd
   PRESS CTRL+C TO STOP
---------------------------------------------------------
C:\2install\LibreOffice_7.1.4_Win_x64.msi
---------------------------------------------------------
HostUrl=https://ftp.nluug.nl/office/libreoffice/libreoffice/stable/7.1.4/win/x86_64/LibreOffice_7.1.4_Win_x64.msi

horst.epp
Posts: 1445
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 3:24 pm

Re: Monitoring downloads

Post by horst.epp »

NotNull wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:10 pm
horst.epp wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:45 pm There are many free tools to monitor folder updates and alert you for changes
but none of them can tell you the origin.
Why not? All of them should be able to tell the origin, thanks to the Zone.Identifier datastream.
Because none does it, or do you know one ?
Nice script by the way.
Can be added as post operation for some folder monitor.
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Monitoring downloads

Post by NotNull »

horst.epp wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:21 pm Because none does it, or do you know one ?
No, never looked at folder monitoring tools (apart from Process Monitor, but that's an entirely different story).
Should be easy enough to write one, though ..
Post Reply