Open Network Files Do Not Appear in Net Watcher

• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

Files that are opened by a client computer may not show up immediately or at all when you are running the Net Watcher tool on a server.

CAUSE

There is no file system notification, so Net Watcher periodically refreshes the list of open files. The refresh interval is 60 seconds, so there could be a delay of up to 60 seconds until open files appear in the list.

Additionally, some programs are written to open a file, read the contents into memory, and close the file. When the file is saved, the program opens the file again and writes the modified contents into the file. Since these files do not remain open on the server, they do not appear in Net Watcher's list of open files.

RESOLUTION

Press the F5 key in Net Watcher to refresh the list of open files. Use caution with programs that do not hold their files open when modifying files on a server, because they do not enforce exclusive access.