📁 FileTracker

See what changed on your Windows PC: recent files, change history and large files in one place.

English | Tiếng Việt

⬇️ Download the latest release

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✨ Features

🕘 Recent files	Grouped by day; sort by created date, modified date or size.
🔄 Change history	Added, modified, deleted and renamed/moved files inside the watched scope.
🔎 Search & filters	Search by name or path; filter by folder, file type and time range.
⭐ Starred files	Star files to reopen them quickly.
📦 Large files	Files of 100 MB or more, largest first.
📂 Quick actions	Open a file, open its folder, copy its path. Executable files ask for confirmation.
📤 CSV export	Export by the current filter (up to 50,000 rows per export, with a notice if the limit is hit).
⏯️ Pause / resume	Manual rescan, plus automatic sync every 30 minutes.
🔔 System tray	Runs in the tray. Closing the window does not quit the app by default.
🚀 Start with Windows	Optional, off by default.
🌐 English / Vietnamese	Switch the app interface between English and Vietnamese.
🎨 Custom app icon	A custom blue folder icon for FileTracker.

FileTracker never edits, moves or deletes your original files.

🆕 What's New in v1.1.0

• Switch the app interface between English and Vietnamese.
• Added a custom blue folder app icon.

See Releases for release notes and downloads.

📸 Screenshots

To show both interface languages, add docs/screenshot-en.png and docs/screenshot-vi.png to the repository. Uncomment each image below only after its corresponding file is available.

🚀 Quick start

1. Extract the whole ZIP into a permanent folder.
2. Run FileTracker.exe. Keep FileTracker.exe.config in the same folder.
3. Wait for the first scan. Results update while it runs.

Requirements: Windows 10/11 x64 and .NET Framework 4.8. No Python, Node.js, internet connection or Administrator rights needed. The app is not signed with a commercial code-signing certificate, so Windows may show a security warning the first time you run it.

🎯 Default scope

• Program Files (64-bit)
• Program Files (x86)
• Downloads of the current Windows account, including relocated folders
• D:\ and its subfolders

You can add or remove locations in Folders & Settings (Thư mục & Cài đặt). After saving, choose Exit from the tray icon and reopen the app to apply the new scope.

⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + F	Search
Ctrl + C	Copy the path of the selected row
F5	Rescan

🕒 How to read the timestamps

• Created and Modified come from Windows metadata. They are not necessarily when you downloaded or saved the file, because copying, extracting and other apps can change them.
• The first scan builds a list of existing files. It does not reconstruct past activity.
• Events without the word "Detected" (Phát hiện) were captured by the watcher while the app was running.
• Events labelled Detected added / modified / missing come from a rescan. The time shown is when the change was detected, not the exact moment it happened while the app was off.

⚠️ Limitations (please read)

• FileTracker relies on filesystem notifications and metadata comparison. It is not a full audit log. Very fast or duplicated events, events during pause/restart, and buffer overflows may not be recorded completely.
• A file created and deleted while the app was off cannot be recovered from history.
• The app does not store file contents or old versions, and it cannot restore deleted files.
• Renaming a folder is reconciled as files added/missing. Moving files between two watched scopes may appear as Deleted + Added rather than one Moved event.
• Each page shows 200 items. History is trimmed to the most recent 100,000 events after each sync. The file index is stored permanently.
• "Hide technical files" only filters the list. Untick it to see DLLs, logs, etc.
• By default these are skipped: .git, node_modules, __pycache__, .venv, venv (configurable in Settings). Recycle Bin, System Volume Information, directory junctions/symlinks and folders you do not have permission to read are also skipped. FileTracker never goes beyond your access rights.
• A disconnected drive or unreadable folder is not treated as "all files deleted".
• Scanning a large D: drive can take several minutes and increases disk reads at first.

🔒 Privacy & data

FileTracker has no feature that sends data over the network. It only stores file names, paths, metadata, stars and events in:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\FileTracker

The database contains personal paths, so share a CSV or the database only when you mean to. The release package contains no index, personal settings or test data.

Portable mode (optional)

Create an empty file named FileTracker.portable next to FileTracker.exe before launching the app. Data will then live in a Data folder next to the app (write permission required; do not put Data inside Program Files).

You can also choose the folder explicitly:

FileTracker.exe --data-dir "C:\path\to\Data"

Use --tray to start the app hidden in the system tray.

Backup

Fully Exit the app, then copy the whole data folder.

Uninstall

1. Turn off Start with Windows inside the app.
2. Choose Exit from the tray icon.
3. Delete the extracted folder.
4. (Optional) Delete the data folder. This erases your history.

If you enabled auto-start, do not move the EXE without updating the setting first.

🧱 Source code

File	Purpose
Core.cs	SQLite index (Windows built-in winsqlite3), watcher, reconciliation scan, settings storage
App.cs	Bilingual English/Vietnamese UI, search/filters, stars, CSV export, tray and settings
build.ps1	Builds with the C# compiler that ships with .NET Framework
tests/IntegrationTests.cs	Functional tests that run in their own temporary folder

✅ What has been tested

The initial index creates no fake history; live add/modify; Unicode file names; rename keeps the old path and star; delete; skipping developer folders; reconciliation after pause/reopen; unavailable drive; SQLite integrity; saving and reloading settings. Tests never modify your personal files.