Most people who develop for NT/2000/XP at some point run into a file
permissions problem. You can usually solve them by editing the NTFS
permissions on the file in question and normally it's pretty easy to
figure out which file that is... but what do you do when it's not so
easy?
Enter File Monitor.
File Monitor is a free utility available from Sysinternals
that displays file system activity in real time.
It will tell you what files are being accessed and
if they were accessed successfully or not.
This really becomes useful when you're getting a permission
denied error and you just can't seem to find the culprit.
Simply fire up File Monitor, do whatever is causing the
error, and then search the log for the errors to get more information.
At first, you'll probably be overwhelmed by the large amount of information
File Monitor captures. Luckily, it includes a decent filtering and highlighting
system. Once you get used to it, you should be able to
find the problem file pretty quickly (especially if you have it highlight
the "ACCESS DENIED" errors), and with this type of problem,
finding the file in question is usually much harder then fixing it.
Note: These guys have tons of other great Windows system utilities
too. Be sure to take a look at their other offerings. You're
bound to find something that you'll find useful. Oh and you won't
find big bloated programs with huge install files and thousands of hidden
settings. File Monitor is 6 files, under 200k, and is unzip and
run simple. No install routine and no reboot required!
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webmaster@asp101.com.
