How can I see the cumulative time a file has been open for?

[AoifeUnudottir]

I am looking to find out how long I have been working on several different files (ranging from Photoshop CS4 .psd to MSOffice 2010 word/excel/etc docs) to get an idea of my working time for various different projects.

Accessing file properties is able to tell me date created, modified and accesses, but I can't seem to find if there is a way to find out the total time a file has been open for - almost like a log.

I'm not sure if it's possible, and after a look around online I can't find anything hopeful, but I thought I would try somewhere designed for Windows 7 to see if anyone else might know of a way (or know if it is, in fact, not possible).

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[Mark Phelps]

I don't think it's possible. I did some actual Windows programming years ago, which required me to look into what information was available regarding file properties, that I could access and use. I don't recall any date-time field that recorded when a file was opened. Things might have changed in the years since, though.

 

[AoifeUnudottir]

Thanks Mark. That's a shame to hear, but if it's not there it's not there.

 

[Loki]

Hello,

Process Explorer from SysInternals Windows Sysinternals: Documentation, downloads and additional resources will show what time a program started you would need to check that time before you closed the program.

 

[boohbah]

you could install a gadget timer ,some are customizable so you could change the color for each item you wanted to time, clicking the gadget in the gadget window would open several instances then customize the color for each.

 

[AoifeUnudottir]

Thanks for your suggestions. That's going to be very useful going forwards, but I was hoping for a way to find out how long a file that I'd already been working on had been open for. Thank you very much though.