Performance is in the eye of the beholder. 1 second / 2 seconds / 10 seconds -- study the true importance of the 1 second response time. ( system on which I worked, used 20 seconds and no one ever complained )


Should you actually marshall processed files from the "target" folder, you should only ever see unprocessed files. Thus, the "peek at the directory" overhead would be relatively low.


If 1 second delay is really critical, you may want to examine what is really being attempted ( any / all file names or any / all types ? ? ? ) If you have any control at all from the sending side of the system, you could include a signal / interupt that something has occurred in the sending program.


Seems like you are attempting a OS type operation. The .NET suggestion provides low-level access to the directory. What this means is that there must be a Windows API providing the data for this which would probably be available with an appropriate ( I don't know the details ) Windows API call from Foxpro.


Without knowing the system requirements, the advice others have given will have to suffice.


Hope this helps.