VSM - February 2004 Getting Started column
Build a Simple File Watch App
Stan Schultes - stan@vbnetexpert.com

The sample code was built with VS.NET 2002 and .NET Framework v1.1. You can upgrade the project easily by opening it with VS.NET 2003.

Unzip the code to a directory of your choice and double-click the solution (.sln) file to load it in Visual Studio. 

You point FileWatch to a file, a set of files matching a pattern, or a whole directory structure for changes. It minimizes to the task tray area of the Taskbar, and you control it through a right-click context menu on the tray icon. The tray icon shows as white while idle, green while monitoring, and red when changes are detected.