Changing date modified via scripting

bludgin said:

[A]fter a bit more googling, it looks like powershell is the right tool for something like this, yes?

Yes, PowerShell is one way to go; assuming you know how to run a PowerShell script, Bludgin.


Replace_lastwritetime_with_creationtime.ps1

Code:

# Replace_lastwritetime_with_creationtime.ps1 [directory_path]

# For each item in $source_location with the file 
# attributes of $filter_attributes, set the item's
# date modified to the item's creation time

##
[string] $source_location = "C:\Users\$env:Username\Desktop\New Folder" # this path will be used if no directory is passed to the script
[bool]   $should_recurse = $false
[array]  $attribute_filter = @('Directory')
	<# Valid values for the above array are
	ReadOnly, Hidden, System, Directory, 
	Archive, Device, Normal, Temporary, 
	SparseFile, ReparsePoint, Compressed, 
	Offline, NotContentIndexed, Encrypted #>
##

filter Filter-Attributes($attribs = $attribute_filter) {
	if ( ($_.Attributes -band $attribs) -eq ($attribs) ) {return $_}
}

function Replace-LastWriteTime-With-CreationTime($item) {
	$item.LastWriteTime = $item.CreationTime
}

if ($args[0]) {$source_location = $args[0]}
if ((Test-Path $source_location) -eq $false) {throw "$source_location" + ' is not a valid path'}

if ($attribute_filter.length -eq 0) {$attribute_filter = @('Normal')}
[io.fileattributes]$attribute_filter = ([io.fileattributes]$attribute_filter).value__

Get-ChildItem $source_location -Recurse:$should_recurse | Filter-Attributes |
ForEach-Object { Replace-LastWriteTime-With-CreationTime($_) }

Whoah, thank you Pyprohly!

I actually got it working in powershell already, though my script was simply this:

Get-ChildItem 'I:\' | ForEach-Object { $_.LastWriteTime = $_.CreationTime }

But your script is a fantastic introduction to using powershell properly, so thank you very much for taking the time.

The trickiest part of powershell for me is getting it to execute a script via it's icon, I still have not got it working like an old fashioned bat file or exe where you could drag files or folders onto the icon and they become command line parameters. So far I've only managed to right click: Run with powershell on the ps1 file, which doesn't support passing a folder to the script, but since it is something I will run a couple of times a week and always on the same folder, it's convenient enough and does the job.

Thanks again, your example really opened my eyes as to what powershell can do.