FileSystemWatcher and ReadDirectoryChangesW vs. CBFS Filter

CBFS Filter is a software development toolkit that allows you to monitor and control filesystem activity, track file and directory operations, alter file data, encrypt files, and much more. CBFS Filter includes a .NET demo project that emulates FileSystemWatcher, so you can combine the simplicity of FileSystemWatcher with the power of CBFS Filter.

Features	Windows	CBFS Filter
Filesystem support	NTFS or network drive. No FAT or FAT32 support.	Any filesystem including any local or network filesystem.
Permissions required	SeBackupPrivilege and read access to the folder being monitored. The SeBackupPrivilege permission is usually available for administrator accounts only.	None. CBFS Filter doesn't require any special permissions and can be run under limited accounts. Installation of the CBFS Filter driver requires administrative rights.
Windows security restrictions	Followed. You won't get proper notification on files you don't have access to.	Bypassed by the driver. Your application gets notifications about all file and directory events and doesn't care about security permissions set on files and directories.
Operation mode	Asynchronous (you only get notifications).	Synchronous or Asynchronous (the former allows you to intercept the request and modify it or prevent it from being processed).
Types of events tracked	Creation, Deletion, Modification, Renaming.	All types of filesystem events (including access and directory enumeration).
Reliability	Not reliable (some notifications can be omitted or lost).	Reliable (you get notifications about all operations that happen while your application is running).

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