How to Change the Last Modified Date, Creation Date, and Last Accessed Date for Files and Folders

It’s amazing how many times you will find yourself in a situation where you have to change or modify the dates for a file or folder, such as the creation date, last modified date or the last accessed date! I’m not really going to wonder WHY anyone would need to do this, but based on my own experience, I have found it very handy in certain circumstances (ahem)!

Changing the date on a file is actually quite complicated if you try to do it yourself, but thankfully there are a few really nice freeware applications that can get the job done for you quickly and easily. I’m going to quickly go through three different apps each that do pretty much the same thing, but I’d rather mention more than less just in case one does not work for you.

FileDate Changer

This program works on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP. I’m not really sure if it’s going to work on Vista or not. I’ll see if I can find one that does! Anyway, it works without any installation and only needs Internet Explorer version 3 or above installed on the computer. Click Add Files, select the dates you want changed and click Change File Dates! Pretty simple. Note: Only works on files.

SetFileDate 2.0

This program has a prettier interface and allows you to multi-select from an explorer type interface rather than having to add files one by one. You can also change the dates of folders using SetFileDate. It’s very small and very easy to use!

eXpress Timestamp Toucher

The difference between this program and the others is that eXpress TT allows you to change the date and time for a file or folders AND optionally all sub-folders. This can prove to be very useful if you need to change the date and time for all files and folders under a specific folder. You can change the creation time, modified time, and last access time.

So there you have it, 3 ways you can go about changing the date and time on a file or folder! Hope it helps!

Oh I almost forgot, if you’re a Mac user, you can check out a program called A Better Finder Attributes that will allow you to change the date and time for a file, but it costs around $15! Know of something free, post a comment!