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How to view the user name of the last person that saved a file in the Windows 7 File explorer "Details view"

When you select any file in Windows and view its properties, you can see the 'property' this file was "Last Saved By" = "user_name"

How can I get this property to show up in the Folder's - Details view.

I can get the property "Date Last saved" to show up in the Details view, but I can't find a way to display the username of the "Last Saved by"

It's not available in the choices to pick up, can anyone else please help. Thanks. I originally asked this on stack overflow and was directed to the super user site.

Oliver Salzburg
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user234342
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    If I'm not wrong the attribute you are talking about is only provided by Windows for documents (e.g. docx, pptx, etc.), not for "any file in Windows". So it's not a filesystem attribute like "Date Last saved" is, it's an information stored inside the content of the file, just to be clear. – Kar.ma Feb 21 '18 at 11:04

6 Answers6

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You can try the "Owner" field column (not attribute as I originally posted). It's not exactly the same as "Last Saved By" but should do the trick 99% of the time.

In your folder view, right-click on a Column header such as "Name" then click "More...". Alternatively, you can click on View from the menu and "Add columns" then "Choose columns". Scroll down in that list until you see Owner and check that box. This shows me who was the last person to save the file which is what I was looking for when I came across this thread.

Sergio
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    Could you [edit](http://superuser.com/posts/1064500/edit) your answer to explain how the OP would access the "owner" attribute? – Burgi Apr 12 '16 at 12:34
  • With thanks to @G-Man " Users other than the owner can save a file, if its permissions are set to allow that, and this will not necessarily change the ownership of the file to the user who modified it" – Dave M Apr 12 '16 at 12:35
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    The owner of a file never changes unless somebody explicitly takes ownership of it, e.g. with the Security tab of the property pages. Writing to a file does not update the owner. – Ben N Apr 12 '16 at 13:07
  • Ben is right, the file's Owner attribute is an NTFS attribute that is not changed by saving to the file. The Owner column is what I should have said. Edited answer and provided steps. – Sergio Apr 13 '16 at 14:36
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    On Windows Server 2008, this shows the group, not the username – kurdtpage May 24 '19 at 02:56
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  1. Run Regedit.
  2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\SystemFileAssociations\.xls (Or whatever file type you want to edit.)

  3. Edit the PreviewDetails string adding whatever you want to show up in the order you want it to show up. To add the last modified by add this to the string: System.Document.LastAuthor;. If not sure what the value should be, open and look at the string in full details to see what it should be. You can not add anything that is not listed in the full details.

  4. Close the explorer window and when you reopen and click on that file type, you should see the value showing in the detail pane at the bottom.

Markus Jarderot
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rmloehmann
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  • I see `*System.Document.LastAuthor` in the PreviewDetails already for docx, but it's not anywhere in the Explorer window as far as I can see. Not in the pane at the bottom of the window, not the columns (including the additional list you can choose from), not the tooltip. – Chris Dec 19 '16 at 17:22
  • I believe you have to specify a column width otherwise it will revert to 0 and not be visible. @Markus, can you share a screenshot of how you see it? – Tom Jun 21 '21 at 22:38
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As answered by Dylan Nicholson in the link below, the "Owner" property is what you're looking for.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/still-unanswered-last-saved-by-as-a-column-in-a/f8ced0a1-359a-435b-8204-7a1d40331a91?auth=1

Mike Rowden
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In View, Select Details Pane, you can see all those properties which we have for that file Right click-->properties-->Details

Riaz Ahmad
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Windows File System NFTS does store the local Owner. It does not store the user who last modified a file.

Present-day File Systems (NFTS FAT EXT) provide File Attributes to store information about a file. Giving an option for the operating system, Application or User to record information against the file.

Some examples when attributes are maintained:

  • NFTS actively maintains: file name, creation date, Access control including local Owner, size and location.
  • Windows Audit File System, can be configured to log Last Modified User in the Event Log (does not update the file attributes).
  • MS Office Products. Files opened in MS office products will maintain attributes like Last Modified User.
  • File Transfer (eg. HTTP, NFS). Only the content is guaranteed to reach the destination. It is up to the software and user what Attributes are kept (even file name is not guaranteed).
dank8
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You can try the 'lastsavedby' property; but I believe it only applies to files that are considered documents (e.g., Word/.doc*, Excel/.xls*, PowerPoint/.ppt*).

Go to the Windows search box at the top right and enter the following:

lastsavedby:[user]

You will need to replace [user] with the user's first or last name; I don't think it will work with the NT username.

Check out this webpage for more on Advanced Query Syntax: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965711.aspx

ashdiggedy
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    Your post provides useful information.  Unfortunately, it is not an answer to *this* question, which is not about searching.  Your answer might have been a valuable contribution to [How can I see the available Windows Search Filters?](http://superuser.com/q/531659/354511), but the Advanced Query Syntax link was posted there over two years ago. – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' Apr 29 '15 at 15:37
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    Thank you for this, i found this useful. Saved me hours of searching.Since 2 years ago isnt archived today that well. – DeerSpotter Feb 14 '20 at 15:03