App that shows where all recently installed files actually went?

B

BobTheSlob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 16, 2002
Messages
291
Something like a file system monitor. Say I install, for a perfect example, .NET 3.5, and I want to see where all of the files were actually placed. This app would ideally just go "ok, all the recently installed files on the filesystem are in this location" and I could see where everything went.

Anything like that? I bet there is...
 
yeah I think this would be a nice addition to my arsenal of software. This would be great for combatting viruses and spyware, seeing where they put what.
 
Process monitor is good, but as far as I know, will not log all the files and registry changes during a software install. I used to have a program that would do this in the win95 days........think it was "remove-it". It ran in the background and logged everything during an install to ensure a complete removal. I probably still have the floppies somewhere:D
 
I use a free one that does snapshots of the file system and registry and then compares them after an install or when you tell it to do so and finds the changes. It's called Install Watch and can be downloaded for free from the company here http://www.epsilonsquared.com/
 
mt_100 said:
I use a free one that does snapshots of the file system and registry and then compares them after an install or when you tell it to do so and finds the changes. It's called Install Watch and can be downloaded for free from the company here http://www.epsilonsquared.com/
Click to expand...

Now THAT is fucking wicked. You should add that to the Freeware (because free is the magic number!) thread here in this subforum.

That will now be an app I keep around for the future, outstanding in the short testing I just did in a VM - it caught pretty much everything in the installation of several common apps I use daily.

Very nice piece of coding InstallWatch is...
 
I use Wyse Package Studio to pick an application apart like that. It's a pretty expensive option, though. It looks like there are a few free alternatives in this thread, one should help you. Also look at Advanced Installer. I know that it's used for building installation packages (same as Wyse), but the functionality you're looking for is built into the application. You run the application and it scans your system. Then you install your application and do another scan. The differences will be displayed in a console. You will also have the option of saving them into an MSI file for later installations.


If you're looking for a registry tool to do this, check out RegShot. It will do the same as above except just with the registry.
 
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