File access times and dates

[Mark M.]

Hi:

I have a question and may be a very simple one. I am
trying to find out when (date
and time) when a file or folder was last accessed. Every
time I click on or right click on a file or folder it
gives me the time and date that I click on it. Any
suggestions as to how to go about viewing the "last
accessed" times. Oh, by the way, I tried the "Recent"
Folder, however, it seems to only show me the folders
accessed, but not the files inside the folders.

Any help would be great.

Mark
..

 

[Gary Smith]

I have a question and may be a very simple one. I am
trying to find out when (date
and time) when a file or folder was last accessed. Every
time I click on or right click on a file or folder it
gives me the time and date that I click on it. Any
suggestions as to how to go about viewing the "last
accessed" times. Oh, by the way, I tried the "Recent"
Folder, however, it seems to only show me the folders
accessed, but not the files inside the folders.

From a command prompt, use the /ta option of the DIR command to display
access dates. In Windows Explorer, you can add the Accessed column to the
display in the right window. (Right-click anywhere on the column headinfs
and check Accessed.)

 

[Mark M.]

Thanks for the hel[p, now i seem to run up against another
issue. The "Last Accessed" works but when I try to find
out who has accessed it (by using the recent docuements) I
am unable to locate who has tried to use it. The recent
docuement file has not be deleted, but when I view
properties, of the file contained" they will over-lap the
time and date of the file i am trying to moitor. Any
additional help would be appreciated.

Mark M.

 

[Gary Smith]

Thanks for the hel[p, now i seem to run up against another
issue. The "Last Accessed" works but when I try to find
out who has accessed it (by using the recent docuements) I
am unable to locate who has tried to use it. The recent
docuement file has not be deleted, but when I view
properties, of the file contained" they will over-lap the
time and date of the file i am trying to moitor. Any
additional help would be appreciated.

I don't think you can get any useful information that way. Even if Recent
Documents entries haven't been disabled, as they are on my machines, it
appears that accessing a file doesn't always produce an entry in Recent
Documents -- and of course that folder can be partially or completely
emptied at any time. I've also observed that if you run a virus scanner,
its activity will set the last accessed date on every file it scans.A few
minutes from now, every file on my system will show 03/03/2004.

 

[Guest]

Hi;

Saw you advice on the other newsgroup. Thanks for the
help here, it is very important to our security to be able
to track file usage. We have a monitoring program on our
system, but we did not realize the issue with the virus
scan. Ours dosen't scan unless we tell it, but everytime
the PC is logged off and then re-logged in (we use on-line
McAffee) it goes though the open phase's of our virus
protection, but no scan, I would know it, it would take a
heck of a long time to scan. Anyway, our monitoring
program does not show that anybody is accessing this
program, but the "Last Accessed" column shows a time and a
date (other than when I am checking it) that the file was
accessed. Any ideas?

Thanx
Mark

-----Original Message-----

Thanks for the hel[p, now i seem to run up against another
issue. The "Last Accessed" works but when I try to find
out who has accessed it (by using the recent docuements) I
am unable to locate who has tried to use it. The recent
docuement file has not be deleted, but when I view
properties, of the file contained" they will over-lap the
time and date of the file i am trying to moitor. Any
additional help would be appreciated.

I don't think you can get any useful information that way. Even if Recent
Documents entries haven't been disabled, as they are on my machines, it
appears that accessing a file doesn't always produce an entry in Recent
Documents -- and of course that folder can be partially or completely
emptied at any time. I've also observed that if you run a virus scanner,
its activity will set the last accessed date on every file it scans.A few
minutes from now, every file on my system will show 03/03/2004.

 

[Gary Smith]

Saw you advice on the other newsgroup. Thanks for the
help here, it is very important to our security to be able
to track file usage. We have a monitoring program on our
system, but we did not realize the issue with the virus
scan. Ours dosen't scan unless we tell it, but everytime
the PC is logged off and then re-logged in (we use on-line
McAffee) it goes though the open phase's of our virus
protection, but no scan, I would know it, it would take a
heck of a long time to scan. Anyway, our monitoring
program does not show that anybody is accessing this
program, but the "Last Accessed" column shows a time and a
date (other than when I am checking it) that the file was
accessed. Any ideas?

I don't think I'd place much faith in the file system's access date and
time. There seem to be any number of system processes which might to
something that would affect the access date. If your monitor program
doesn't give you sufficient information, you might want to look into file
access auditing. This page gives some basic information:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/iis/htm/core/iimacsc.htm#auditset