Accessed Date is wrong

[Keith H]

I need to find out when some files were last accessed. I though all I needed
to do was look at the properties of the file, but it's wrong.

I have a file that says last time was 1st August 2008. I opened the file, I
even printed it, but the accessed date hasn’t changed.

How can I find the last date files were accessed?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I need to find out when some files were last accessed. I though all I
needed
to do was look at the properties of the file, but it's wrong.

I have a file that says last time was 1st August 2008. I opened the file,
I
even printed it, but the accessed date hasn't changed.

How can I find the last date files were accessed?

I assume that you're working in "My Computer" to view the file. You now need
to make the "Last Accessed" column visible. By default you only get the
"Date Modified" column.

 

[Keith H]

I am looking at both the properties of the file and gong into DOS and doing a
dir /ta to show the accessed date. They are both the same and opening the
file and printing it even dosn't change that date.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

To avoid ambiguity, you should state in your post what environment you're
working in. You were actually in a Command Prompt, not in "My Computer", and
different rules apply in that area. When you type this command:

dir /?

then you will immediately see that there are different switches for the
various date stamps, e.g.

dir /tc
dir /ta
dir /tw

 

[Keith H]

I have checked the date in three locations. I have looked in My Computer, I
have right clicked the file (in My Computer) and selected properties and I
have looked in the command prompt using dir /ta, and in all three instances
if I open the file, print it then close it the Accessed date never changes.

What I need to know is what makes the Accessed date change. I know if I
click save before I close the file then both the Accessed and the Modified
dates change, but I am looking for files that have been accessed only.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Here is a screen shot from my PC:
D:\Temp>dir /ta w*.txt
Sat 17/01/2009 00:00 7,328 wget.txt

D:\Temp>notepad wget.txt

D:\Temp>dir /ta w*.txt
Fri 23/01/2009 00:00 7,328 wget.txt

The date stamp of wget.txt is obviously updated. The time stamp is set to
00:00, probably because no time is recorded for the "last accessed" item.

 

[Keith H]

Unfortunalty that isn't happening on my system. The files are word and Excel.
I can open and print them but the Accessed date dosn't update.

 

[Keith H]

It would appear that I have another problem. As I said I tried what you are
saying and the date didn't change. However I have just tried the same thing
on another PC and the date did change.

So my original problem it would seam is not the issue. There must be
something wrong with my PC.

Thank you for all your help.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

In such cases the first step is to rerun the test while in Safe Mode.

 

[alpha]

On my hard drive, the time is non-zero.
On my ram drive, the time is zero.
You have not told the OP how to actually make his PC behave as your PC does.
On my PC:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
DWORD NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate = 1
always causes 'Accessed:' == 'Created:' Date/Time-stamps
- it does not record 'Last accessed Date/Time-stamps.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

On my hard drive, the time is non-zero.
On my ram drive, the time is zero.
You have not told the OP how to actually make his PC behave as your PC
does.
On my PC:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
DWORD NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate = 1
always causes 'Accessed:' == 'Created:' Date/Time-stamps
- it does not record 'Last accessed Date/Time-stamps.

This is because I was not previously aware of this key - thanks for the tip!
I note that the key does not exist by default, which should get the OP to
wonder how it got there in the first place.