Log in

View Full Version : Tweak Time/Date Stamps with Attribute Changer


Jason Dunn
02-26-2010, 05:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.petges.lu/windows/windows.html' target='_blank'>http://www.petges.lu/windows/windows.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Attribute Changer is a power user tool to change all kind of file and folder attributes, date, time and even NTFS compression. Exif date and time information stored in digital images are easily altered with Attribute Changer. Basic features include changing file and folder attributes within en masse. More advanced features include relative and partial date/time stamp modifications. Realtime monitoring and reporting is also available. File and folder filters are available to include/exclude filesystem objects based on various criteria."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//dht/auto/1267139928.usr1.png" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>This is one of my favourite donationware programs out there when it comes to altering file stamp attributes. Here's the scenario I find myself using it in all the time: we were <a href="http://www.jasondunn.com/logans-first-solid-food-2399" target="_blank">feeding Logan solid food for the first time last week</a>, and I captured both photos and video clips of the event. I edited the photos, which of course have EXIF data, and dropped the photo into Picasa. Today I edited the video clips into a single video file, and the resulting video has a creation date of today. That's when it was <em>created </em>of course, but the video clips were <em>captured </em>the same day as the photos, and that's the date I want to reflect on my video clip.</p><p>Why? I've run into all sorts of software and Web sites that will look at a group of photos and videos in a folder and assign the event date for that folder based on the newest date of the files in the folder. So what you end up with is inaccurate dating. To fix that, I use Attribute Changer to modify the date of my video files so that they match up with the photos. It's a great little program that's well worth the donation I sent to the developer, and if you'd like to fix this problem, <a href="http://www.petges.lu/windows/windows.html" target="_blank">I'd encourage you to check out the software</a>.</p>

ptyork
02-26-2010, 06:20 PM
I hope my students don't find this. Time stamps are the one previously-almost-reliable way of determining if they are late in turning in assignments (last modified date > due date) or have cheated by sharing files (have the exact same creation date). :)

Dyvim
02-26-2010, 07:05 PM
I use DateEdit, which is a freeware shell extension for Windows that lets you edit file dates from within Windows Explorer. It's bare-bones but it's lightweight, unobtrusive, and does the job.

Jason Dunn
02-26-2010, 08:22 PM
I hope my students don't find this. Time stamps are the one previously-almost-reliable way of determining if they are late in turning in assignments (last modified date > due date) or have cheated by sharing files (have the exact same creation date). :)

Haha...wow, I never thought of that - I guess the reality is that if someone wants to cheat, they'll find a way. Hopefully they don't try to trick you though. ;)