How much does the process monitoring the folder loads the system?

Question

dropbox

Good day!
There are programs that track file changes in a folder: Dropbox and others like it, GoodSync and others.
Like most Windows users, I am faced with the fact that over time their system works worse and worse, up to reinstallation. I'm wondering how much these processes load the computer? How do they even work? Check target folder every 30 seconds?

Answer 1

No, they don't check every 30 seconds. They use either monitoring functions (for example, ReadDirectoryChangesW ) or change logs .
The load from monitoring is negligible.
Article on Habré: habrahabr.ru/post/164775/

Answer 2

Checked in ubuntu. Process with inotifywait practically eats nothing.

Answer 3

The operating system has means for notifying about changes in the file system: the process subscribes to notifications associated with the directory and as soon as something has changed there, it is informed.

Answer 4

The processor itself should not load such programs, if only because the application that hangs in the background and eats resources is not practical and no one needs it. Although Dropbox takes 50 MB in my RAM. For modern computers, not so much, but still it could be more economical.