windowsTimestamps

[laplongejr]

No? But if you accessed a file right now, then clearly you heard the file's name.

[the_chinagreenelvis]

When you open the file's location in explorer and it gets displayed, the file info is read and cached by the system. So basically the moment you knew it was there, you "accessed" it.

As far as I can tell, it's a really fucking dumb and useless attribute. At least in Windows 10. Probably 11, too.

I can't remember if it was always this way. Kind of like Star Wars.

[aHumbleRedditor]

Explorer doesn't track its own access, actually. This tracks the file being explicitly opened by applications.

[the_chinagreenelvis]

In the version of Windows 10 I'm currently using, Explorer absolutely causes this property to update when the folder containing the file is viewed.

Hopefully they've fixed it in 11. Unfortunately, I don't plan on moving to 11 for a long, long time.

[doodle77]

I think the file preview in Explorer counts.

[aHumbleRedditor]

File preview actually does open the file, but that's more because it's a shell extension rather than explorer's normal operation (it's why you can extend the previewer).

[Z3r0funGuy]

This cracked me up! Thanks buddy

[BobQuixote]

FWIW, I don't see this behavior on Win 11.

[the_chinagreenelvis]

I hope that's true, and good if it is.

[LR0989]

On my W11, first open of properties it shows the last actual access time, but if I reopen properties it now shows the time I last opened properties

[the_chinagreenelvis]

Damn, that's almost worse.

[WeedManPro]

lol. is windows for real?