Windows 95 File Properties: Creation and Modified Dates

Windows 95 revolutionized the personal computer interface by introducing a unified shell that allowed users to view detailed file metadata, including creation, modification, and last-accessed dates. Through the introduction of the context-sensitive Properties dialog and Windows Explorer’s Details view, the operating system moved away from the basic file listings of Windows 3.1, taking advantage of the 32-bit VFAT file system to store and display richer timestamp information directly to the user.

To inspect a file's timestamps in Windows 95, the primary method was the Properties dialog box. Users could access this window in three ways:

• Right-clicking the file icon and selecting Properties from the context menu.
• Selecting the file and pressing Alt + Enter.
• Selecting the file and choosing File > Properties from the top menu bar.

Within the Properties window, the General tab displayed the file's metadata. Below the file name, type, directory location, and size, Windows 95 presented three distinct date and time fields:

• Created: Indicated the exact date and time the file was created on the current storage drive.
• Modified: Indicated the date and time the file's contents were last altered and saved.
• Accessed: Displayed the calendar date the file was last opened or read.

Directly beneath these timestamps, the dialog also presented the shortened MS-DOS file name (using the 8.3 naming convention) and standard file attributes: Read-only, Archive, Hidden, and System.

Users could also monitor modification dates in bulk via folder windows and Windows Explorer. By choosing View > Details from the menu bar (or clicking the Details button on the toolbar), the folder changed from an icon layout to a multi-column list. In this view, Windows 95 displayed the file Name, Size, Type, and Modified date. Unlike modern Windows versions, the Details view in Windows 95 could not be customized to show the "Created" or "Accessed" dates in adjacent columns; those specific timestamps could only be viewed via the individual file's Properties dialog.

This capability was made possible by Windows 95's underlying file system architecture. While earlier MS-DOS and Windows systems only tracked a single modification timestamp per file, the Virtual File Allocation Table (VFAT) system introduced with Windows 95 allocated extra directory entries to store long file names along with independent creation and last-access timestamps.