How to change the creation date of a file – 5 ways

In some cases, users are looking for an answer to the question of how to change the creation date of an Excel, Word, PowerPoint, JPG, PDF, MP3, MP4, or other file formats. Such an operation is necessary in situations where, for some reason, you need to change the dates of the creation of a file by changing its properties.

How to change the creation date of a file, is it possible to change the creation date of a file? Yes, such manipulations can be performed with files or folders in Windows. You can set any other date and time, both in the past and in the future.

This may be needed, for example, when you need to hide something, or pass out obsolete files as new, recently created ones. These can be Word, Excel, PowerPoint files, files of other text formats, video, audio, photos or other images. To solve this problem, we change the creation date of the file.

Before answering the question of how to change the creation date of a file, you first need to find out where this information is located in the file properties.

How to see the creation date of a file

In the operating system, files or folders retain their creation, modification, and opening date properties. The creation date of the file is displayed in the file properties.

To view this information, follow these steps:

1. Right click on a file or folder.
2. In the context menu, click on the “Properties” item.
3. In the properties window of a file or folder, the General tab will display information about when the file or folder was created, when it was changed, when it was opened.

When creating or modifying a file, Windows is guided by the current time in the operating system. The properties of the file or folder indicate the corresponding time, so we need to change the creation date of the Windows file.

You can change the creation date of a file using the tools of the Windows operating system, or using third-party software. In this guide, you will find instructions on several ways to solve this problem, with which we can change the creation or modification date of the file.

How to change the creation date of a file in Windows 10

The simplest thing that comes to mind is to change the file creation time in the operating system time settings. I will show how to do this using the example of Windows 10; in other versions of the OS, the setup is similar.

Go through the following steps:

1. Right-click on the date and time display in the notification area (system tray).
2. In the context menu, click on “Date and time settings”.
3. In the “Settings” application that opens, in the “Date and time” tab, in the “Set time automatically” option, move the toggle switch to the “Disabled” position.
4. In the “Set date and time manually” setting, click on the “Change” button.
5. In the “Change date and time” window, enter the desired values, and then click on the “Change” button.
6. Create a new folder on your computer desktop. This folder will have new date and time properties set that are different from the actual time period.
7. Open an Excel, Word, JPG, PNG, PDF, or other source file in a PC program designed to open files of this type.
8. Enter the “File” menu (in the vast majority of programs), select “Save As”.
9. In the Explorer window, select the newly created folder, and leave the file name and extension unchanged.
10. Click on the “Save” button.
11. A copy of the original file will appear in the folder. Open the properties of this file to verify that changes have been made to the date and time the file was created.

The original original file can be deleted from the computer because you have a complete copy of the file with other properties: changed date and time.

After completing the work with changing the creation date of the file, return the current date and time in the Windows settings:

1. In the Settings app, open the Time & Language setting.
2. In the “Date and time” tab, in the “Current date and time” section, in the “Set time automatically” option, move the slider to the “On” position.

How to change file creation date in Total Commander

Using the popular Total Commander file manager, you can change the date and time the file was created. In the Total Commander program, you can change the properties of one file or several files at once in batch mode.

The following recommendations must be followed:

1. Open Total Commander on your computer.
2. Select a file or multiple files.
3. Enter the “Files” menu, in the context menu click on “Change attributes …”.
4. In the “Change Attribute” window, check the “Change date/time” checkbox, and then set the appropriate date and time.
5. Click on the Add Attribute button.
6. In the “Field:” option, select “Created Date” from the context menu, in the “Value:” option, click on the button with double quotes.
7. The Created Date window will open, allowing you to change the date and time the file was created.
8. Click on the “OK” button in both windows of the program.
9. Make sure the file properties have the new date and time values.

In Total Commander, in a similar way, you can change the date and time of modification, the date and time of the last access.

How to change file content creation date to NewFileTime

NewFileTime is a free program that changes the creation date of a file. The program does not require installation on a computer, it is launched from a folder. The application supports the Russian interface language.

NewFileTime can be downloaded from the official site at this link . After downloading to your computer, unpack the archive with the program.

In the NewFileTime program, do the following:

1. Upon first launch, accept the terms of the license agreement.
2. Drag and drop a file or multiple files in the program window.
3. In the fields “Date of modification”, “Date of creation”, “Date of access” set the required values.
4. Click on the “Set time” button.
5. Close the program window.

Changes have been made to file properties regarding the date the file was created, modified, or opened.

How to change the creation date of file content FileDate Changer

FileDate Changer is a free program from the renowned software developer NirSoft. Download the FileDate Changer program from the developer’s website here.

Unpack the ZIP archive with the program, and then run the application on your computer.

Follow these steps:

1. Drag and drop the file into the program window, or click on the “Add Files” button to add a file from the PC. Supports working with files in batch mode.
2. In the fields “Created Date” (date of creation), “Modified Date” (date of modification), “Accessed Date” (date of access), set the appropriate values ​​for the date and time.
3. Click on the “Change Files Date” button to apply the changes.
4. Close the FileDate Changer program, check the result.

How to change file properties, creation date in BulkFileChanger

BulkFileChanger is a free utility from NirSoft for bulk changing file properties, an analogue of the FileDate Changer program with advanced features. Download the program from the official site . Download links are at the bottom of the page, where you need to download the localization language in order to Russify the program.

Take the necessary steps:

1. Unpack the archive with the program and the archive with the Russian language.
2. Place the Russian language file in the program folder.
3. Run the BulkFileChanger program from the folder.
4. Add a file from the application interface or drag and drop files from your computer.
5. Enter the “Actions” menu, select the “Change time/attributes” item in the context menu.
6. In the “Date and time of files” section, set the appropriate values.
7. Click on the “Run” button.
8. Close the program, look at the properties of the file.

Article Conclusions

When working on a computer, there are situations when a user needs to change the date a file was created or the date a file was modified by changing the date and time to the past or future. You can make such changes in the Windows operating system by manually changing the time, or using third-party programs.