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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.

asgasehswheeshss
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  • What is changing your last accessed dates? This shouldn't be happening on such a large scale. – harrymc Oct 24 '22 at 13:03
  • That was what I was wondering too. I have three other questions here of me trying to stop this: https://superuser.com/questions/1747060 https://superuser.com/questions/1747076 https://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 Oct 24 '22 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 Oct 24 '22 at 13:19
  • Automatic updates of most of your files are unlikely in the extreme - no such software exists. The antivirus is more likely, especially if it's uploading your files to be checked. – harrymc Oct 24 '22 at 13:26
  • Sorry for the late reply, I don't have any other antivirus except WIndows Antivirus. It has barely done anything (if anything) this past year (I've only seen it in Task Manager) and I haven't even touched it let alone open it. Also, the percentage "50-80%" is just an estimate and I actually have no idea what percentage has been accessed this past year. It's just that from what I've seen, most of the files I haven't personally touched had their last accessed dates changed, pretty much everywhere on my computer that I checked with TreeSize – asgasehswheeshss Oct 24 '22 at 14:23
  • Some software is accessing all your files, but I can't say which. You'll need to search for it. – harrymc Oct 24 '22 at 14:28
  • How do I search for it? It's one of the things I have been trying to do for the past few months on top of other things – asgasehswheeshss Oct 24 '22 at 16:17
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    This is complicated, because you can't detect it happening. Perhaps you could use [Autoruns](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns) to examine all your Startups and guess. You can also use it to disable and re-enable products. [Process Monitor](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon) might be another useful tool, but you need to know more about what you're searching. – harrymc Oct 24 '22 at 17:03
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    Does this answer your question? [How to preserve file attributes when one copies files in Windows?](https://superuser.com/questions/146125/how-to-preserve-file-attributes-when-one-copies-files-in-windows) – Engineer Toast Oct 24 '22 at 17:05

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