MobilMon (c) 2008 Brian Dunn

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What is MobilMon?

A: If you are a developer, sysadmin, or tweaker, you have probably used utilities that monitor file system activity. Sometime that’s just the only way to figure out what’s really going on. Well, I was trying to figure some things out on my Windows Mobile device and said to myself, “A file monitoring utility sure would be handy for this.” To my surprise, nobody had yet written one.

MobilMon is a basic file access monitoring utility for Windows Mobile (www.microsoft.com). MobilMon requires the Smart Device Framework published by www.opennetcf.org.

MobilMon monitors file system activity, reporting any new file creations, file changes, or file deletions.

Q: Is MobilMon free?

A: The introductory version, MobilMon 0.5, is being offered at no charge on a limited basis. It’s status as free software may change, so if you did not obtain MobileMon from its official website, you should check there for changes to the EULA. You may not be entitled to use MobilMon for free.

Q: I got MobilMon from somewhere other than the official website. What should I do?

A: No one is authorized to distribute the MobileMon except for Technonaut. If you obtained MobilMon from a third-party website, I recommend that you check your system thoroughly for malware, and then visit MobilMon’s homepage for a fresh copy and the current EULA.

Q: Is MobilMon open source?

A: No.

Q: Can you add ______________ feature to MobilMon?

A: The generic answer is that I won’t rule anything out, but since I have children and work on MobilMon only in my spare time, anything complicated is unlikely.

Q: I only want to monitor a specific directory. How can I do that?

A: Right now, you can’t. Due to some peculiarities in the underlying classes, I have to change a few things to be able to do that. I may work on it, but can’t commit to a release schedule.

Q: I only want to monitor certain types of files. How can I do that?

A: You can’t, at least not now. It is possible, but I have no present plans to this effect.

Q: My system slowed down to a crawl when I ran MobilMon. Why?

A: By their very nature, battery-powered mobile devices don’t have a lot of horsepower. Tracking, recording, and visually representing every file system event can be intensive during periods of heavy file system changes. I don’t want to overstate this issue, though; during normal use, I personally only had a single incident where it was a problem.

Q: What is MobilMon’s license agreement?

A: The license is posted on www.mobilmon.com. By using the software, you agree to the terms of the license agreement.

Q: Why do I sometimes see multiple entries?

A: This has to do with the way that the file system does things. It’s normal. For example, when creating a new file, first the file table is modified showing the new files, which generates a new file event, and then the empty file is populated with content, resulting in a change.