I need to intercept when the system tries to access to a file, and do something before it happens.
Asked
Active
Viewed 3,710 times
12
-
I could swear this question was just asked recently, but I can't find it. – John Saunders Feb 28 '10 at 21:54
-
Have you looked at the FileSystemWatcher class? – Feb 28 '10 at 21:54
-
The FileSystemWatcher gives me post-access, i need to have pre-access – FBSC Feb 28 '10 at 22:09
5 Answers
8
You can use FileSystemWatcher - but this doesn't let you intercept the event and do things before hand - it only informs you after the fact that a particular file or directory has been affected in some way.
Intercepting file access is not something you can do easily.
You can write a file system filter driver, which is an unmanaged DLL which the O/S will load that can intercept operations on files or folders. However, this isn't a trivial task.
What are you trying to achieve, perhaps there's a simpler alternative?
LBushkin
- 129,300
- 32
- 216
- 265
2
Check http://easyhook.codeplex.com/, it provides you directly from c# c++ like dll method overwritting.
Kerem Kusmezer
- 492
- 7
- 15
1
There's a very similar thread here: How could I prevent a folder from being created using a windows service?. It may provide some more insight, but @LBushkin has already provided the same conclusion.
0
Interesting question. What kind of access? Read, write, delete, copy?
If you need to prevent access to a file then the security would be the way. Then you can capture the access and do delegate the task to a higher privileged execution engine. Such as a service running as higher privileged user.
If you want to stop system level access then you'll need an IFS filter.
If all access is via your code, then I'd suggest a library that prevent's access.
And as other people have mentioned, there is the FileSystemWatcher, but I think this post access not before.
Preet Sangha
- 64,563
- 18
- 145
- 216