File Date Touch

About Windows File Dates

If you don't know "touch" is a popular UNIX utility for changing file dates.

Unfortunately Microsoft does not provide a corresponding utility in Windows, so one should use utility like File Date Touch when one needs to change file dates in Windows manualy. There are couple of similiar popular utilities out there which can do the job. You can use this one however if you want to avoid any download registrations, instalation procedures or .NET requirements.

Most people don't know that each Windows file has 3 date and time stamps:

Date Created - it marks when the file was created for first time

Date Modified - it marks when anything was written in the file

Date Accessed - it marks when the file was accessed for reading, execution, etc.

Windows Explorer shows by default only the Date Modified because one normaly cares only when the content of the file was changed last time. If you want to see the other dates from Windows Explorer you can go to "View" - "Choose Details" and check the other two dates.

File Date Touch changes the Date Modified and sets the Date Accessed equal to Date Modified always automaticaly. It gives you the option to choose if you want to change or not the Date Created.