If you do a great deal of work on your home computer, it might be critical for you to make sure that your files remain untouched. This will allow you to save your work and be able to come back to the same files that you left when you went to take a break and eat lunch. If you have a shared computer, there is always the risk that someone might change a file accidentally and you might not notice, especially if the file is large, and you might send an incomplete or damaged file into work. This could cause untold problems. In order to avoid this situation, here's how you can track file changes on your computer.
1. Open GPEDIT
The first thing that you're going to need to do is open GPEDIT to get the activity tracker up. Go to the start menu and hit "Run." This will open up a box where you can enter the name of the file that you want your computer to run. Type in gpedit.msc in order to bring up the file tracker.
2. Use Computer Configuration
Next, you are going to see two choices: user configuration and computer configuration. Double click on the computer figuration icon. From there, you are going to want to navigate to Audit Policy by hitting Windows Settings followed by Security Settings, followed by Local Policies, followed by Audit Policy. Double click Audit Object Access when you reach this point and hit both check boxes that are next to Success and Failure respectively. Once you have hit both of the check boxes, you are ready to go. Close GPEDIT.
3. Navigate To Your Folder
Next, navigate to the file or folder that you want to track chances to. Right click on it in the Windows Explorer and hit the bottom choice in the menu, which is marked Properties. When you open Properties, hit the Advanced button and click Auditing. Finally, hit Add to add this file to the auditing list. Add the rest of the files that you would like to keep track of by using this same step on each of time.
4. Use Administrative Tools
Now, an event will show up every time that someone audits the folder. To view these events, go to the Start menu and open Control Panel. Once you are in Control Panel, hit Administrative Tools. This will give you a list of all events, as well as which user is performing the event.
For more information, talk to a company that specializes in file activity tracking, or visit http://www.stealthbits.com.
