0

I have scoured superuser for an answer, and have found similar questions, but none of them talk about preserving the Last Accessed Date. I have already wanted to archive all the last accessed dates on my computer since months ago, but have not found out how yet, and the damage has already been done. I estimate 50-80% of my files' last accessed dates have already been changed since those months. Ideally, it would be better if all my files' last accessed dates were frozen as it is completely useless since opening their properties to check their last accessed dates would change it anyway so I wouldn't be able to see anything.

Right now, I have a selection of files I want to copy and archive, including their last accessed dates, and I can't write them down one by one since I can't even access them without changing it as well.

Improve this question
9
  • What is changing your last accessed dates? This shouldn't be happening on such a large scale.
    – harrymc
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 13:03
  • That was what I was wondering too. I have three other questions here of me trying to stop this: superuser.com/questions/1747060 superuser.com/questions/1747076 superuser.com/questions/1747077 My guess is that automatic updates (most I don't even notice), search indexing, and application usage is causing all these files' last accessed dates to change. For example, I haven't even played or touched Minecraft on my computer in over a year now, but when I last checked my Minecraft folder using TreeSize, its contents were last accessed (and modified!?!) a few months ago.
    – asgasehswheeshss
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 13:13
  • In addition to the metadata of my files being messed around with, these automatic updates are also clogging up my computer space and periodically causing lag spikes. I have been very minimal in my computer activity this past year, I haven't opened anything else other than Chrome, a non-resource-intensive raster editing application, Notepad, and a few other Windows Applications like Event Viewer. I have opened a few Adobe applications like Photoshop only a couple of times, but other than that I haven't been downloading anything large. A couple images, occasionally an audio or video file.No game
    – asgasehswheeshss
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 13:19
  • 1
    This is complicated, because you can't detect it happening. Perhaps you could use Autoruns to examine all your Startups and guess. You can also use it to disable and re-enable products. Process Monitor might be another useful tool, but you need to know more about what you're searching.
    – harrymc
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 17:03
  • 2
    Does this answer your question? How to preserve file attributes when one copies files in Windows?
    – Engineer Toast
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 17:05

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.