How to change the ‘Created’ date for a file on Windows 10

Files automatically save with information that a user doesn’t add e.g., when a file was created, and when it was last modified. This information helps when you need to sort files in File Explorer e.g., File Explorer has an option to sort files by the date they were created on. That said since this is a property you can use to sort files, it helps if you can change it. Out of the box, you can’t change the created date for a file so you’re going to need an app. We recommend using BulkFileChanger.

Change ‘Created’ date for file

Download and run BulkFileChanger. Select the file (or files) that you want to change the creation date for. Click the Change Time/Attributes button (indicated below). A new window will open with details of what properties you can change. Enable the checkbox next to ‘Created’ and set the exact date and time that you want to set as the file’s creation date. If you want, you can also change the modified and accessed date for the selected file(s).

Click ‘Do it’ and the date will be changed. To verify the change, go to the file in File Explorer. Right-click it and select ‘Properties’ from the context menu. The General tab has a Created field that tells you when the file was created, down to the time.

This the tool you should use if you want to set an exact date or time for the file’s creation but, if you just want to change the date to the current day, create a copy of it and the copy’s creation date will be set to the day it was copied on. You can delete the original file (or keep it). This also works for when you need to change the creation date for multiple files.

The app will be able to change the creation date for most files. It’s rare that this particular attribute for a file is ever locked down to a point where it can’t be edited but if you run into a file like that, you can still try the copy file trick.

There’s no way to detect if this particular file property has been changed once it has been changed. You can change it back to the original date with the BulkFileChanger, but you cannot reset it any other way. It is up to you to remember what the original date was. The app won’t remember it.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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