Has someone looked at my files?

[kezzalufc]

Hi

I recently spent a couple of days at my friends house, and left my laptop at home, without password protection (well, you think you're safe from your family looking surely!)

I came home today, and in the Start Menu under Documents, where it lists recently opened files, are a load of files I havent opened in a long time.

Is there anyway they can get on that list without those files having been opened?

Also, when I click on properties for the files, the last accessed date is todays date and time, so no way of seeing when they genuinely were last accessed. Any way round this?

I'd be really grateful for any info - really want to know if theyve been looked at or not! (all family deny at the mo!)

Thanks xx

 

[PC Hobbyist]

I don't know of any other way that they could appear in that list. And as far as the "properties" "last access" - yeah, that's not too reliable. You can read this article about checking when your computer and files were last accessed.

There is a section (regarding the "last access date") that says: "so many other things, such as Windows Desktop Search indexing and other services, also change the last accessed date that it’s impossible to tell whether a folder was opened by a user or accessed routinely by the operating system."

However, I still don't think that would place those files in the "recently used files" list.

http://www.vnunet.com/personal-computer-world/features/2167875/hands-blind-dates

Anyway, read the article, follow its suggestions and see if it helps. However, if you have already rebooted several times since the incident, I don't know if the info in the article still applies.