Windows Explorer lets you enable multiple columns that report additional information about your files, but that information is shown as a simple list and nothing more. If you come to the conclusion that you need to keep a closer eye on file access and modification dates, you can download a copy of Recent File Seeker and generate full logs in seconds.
“I didn't do it” is a technique that has been passed down from generation to generation, immortalized by the great philosopher Bart Simpson, and repeated to exhaustion when something goes wrong with a computer and nobody steps up to take responsibility. In general, users who resort to “I didn't do it” overlook the fact that Windows offers resources to examine several aspects of a file, such as its creation date, modification date, and last execution.
Now, as in many other cases, Windows Explorer is far from ideal. The information is all there, but an administrator might want a more effective and personal method to collect it.
That brings us to Recent File Seeker. The program is completely portable, so it doesn't require a traditional installation, and at just 300 kilobytes it can be placed on any USB drive. The bases for generating logs are three: file creation date, last access, and last modification. Then we have advanced parameters to include in the log, such as MD5 hash, internal file description, and attributes. Recent File Seeker can ignore Microsoft-owned files, focusing its search on user data, and it also has a checkbox to limit the search root to a specific folder.
If we enable too many options at once, the generated log is likely to be very chaotic, but with the right selection, Recent File Seeker has the potential to become a very powerful tool when it comes to detecting unauthorized alterations that may be the responsibility of either a careless user or some variant of malware that has infected the computer.
