TouchPro is a Windows program that allows you to modify (or "touch") any, or all of a file's time & date values. TouchPro fully integrates with Windows Explorer, appearing as an additional page of a file's property pages and also via a context menu. Using Windows Explorer it gives you the ability to affect the timestamps of:
TouchPro runs under Windows XP or later versions of Microsoft Windows.
We recommend that you unzip the TouchPro.zip file and run the Setup.exe from your hard disk.
You need to run the installation from an account with Administrator privileges.
If you don't have an up-to-date copy of the Windows Installer, the setup program may download it.
The last step of Setup informs you that TouchPro is installed and briefly tells you how to use it. If you're upgrading an existing version, we recommend that you log off and back on again, or restart your computer to ensure Explorer has unloaded the old version.
If your system administrator has applied the EnforceShellExtensionSecurity policy to limit the use of shell extensions to approved ones, they will need to add TouchPro to that list in the registry:
Create a REG_SZ value whose name is "{AD6C3BE1-DD8A-11ce-872F-444553540000}" under the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved branch.
The installer supports the MSI administrative installation options.
For example:
msiexec /jm touchpro.msi
"Advertises" TouchPro on all the machine's users Programs menu items. When a user invokes the Start->Programs->JD Design->TouchPro->Readme option, the installation of TouchPro will complete.
or:
msiexec /a touchpro.msi
Performs an "administrative" installation to a shared network location.
TouchPro setup installs files to the following directories:
| %ProgramFiles%\JD Design\TouchPro | The main installation directory. Contains the core program files, including the TouchPro shell extension DLL and TouchCmd, the command line version of TouchPro. |
| ...\doc | The documentation directory, contains this document and related image files. |
Setup will also add relevant registry entries and Start menu items.
1. Use Windows Explorer and select the files or the directory that you want to modify.
If you want to affect a single file, navigate to that file in Explorer, right click it and use the TouchPro context menu:
Similarly, if you want to affect all the files in a directory, select the directory in Explorer, right click it and use the TouchPro context menu:
If you want to affect the results of a search from Explorer, perform the search operation (such as all files of a certain type, or all files in a certain date range) then select all the files you want in the search results pane, right click on a file in the selection and use the TouchPro context menu:
Note that for all the above, as well as the context menu, you can also access TouchPro from the Properties pages of the selected items.
The first three context menu operations are only enabled in a registered version.
This modifies the selected items with the current date and time. The other last saved settings also apply.
This modifies the selected items with the last saved settings values.
This modifies the selected items with the first selected item's modified timestamp value. The other last saved settings also apply.
This displays the main TouchPro dialog:
TouchPro allows you to populate its time controls from an existing timestamp of the first selected file. The following list gives the types of files TouchPro can read, and indicates the internal properties and any equivalence to the file timestamp names used in TouchPro:
MAPI email messages (Microsoft Outlook) | |
| Created | PR_CREATION_TIME |
| Accessed | PR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIME |
| Modified | PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME |
Internet email message (Outlook Express) | |
| Created | "Date" property |
| Accessed | none |
| Modified | "Received" property |
Structured storage files (Microsoft Office Documents) | |
| Created | Date Created (PIDSI_CREATE_DTM) |
| Accessed | Last Printed (PIDSI_LASTPRINTED) |
| Modified | Date Last Saved (PIDSI_LASTSAVE_DTM) |
Picture files (JPG, PNG, TIFF) | |
| Created | Date picture taken (PropertyTagExifDTOrig) |
| Accessed | Time the thumbnail image was created (PropertyTagThumbnailDateTime) |
| Modified | Time the image was created (PropertyTagDateTime) |
You can switch TouchPro between setting a fixed time, or a relative one. When you switch to relative time, the normal time entry controls change to:
This allows you to offset the file's existing times in any combination of Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds. This can be useful if your camera time settings were incorrect!
The other control options are hopefully self explanatory.
Along with the shell extension GUI version, there is a command line version (TouchCmd) that gives you the same facilities as TouchPro via a command line interface - so you can easily automate any build operations.
You can find TouchCmd in the TouchPro installation directory. The default directory is Program Files\JD Design\TouchPro.
To easily use the command line utilities you will need to add the TouchPro installation directory to your computer's PATH environment variable. You can do this for the current command prompt using the set command, alternatively, you can use the Computer Properties, Advanced, Environment Variables dialog.
Usage:
TouchCmd /T[time] /D[date] /C /M /A /O /F /S /R /E /BJ /BD /H path
| /T[time] | Specify the time to use or omit [time] to use current time |
| /D[date] | Specify the date to use or omit [date] to use current date |
| /C | Created Timestamp |
| /M | Last Modified Timestamp |
| /A | Last Accessed Timestamp |
| /O | Touch Folders |
| /F | Touch Files |
| /S | Process sub-directories |
| /R | Touch Read-only files |
| /E+/-d:h:m:s | Offset timestamp days:hours:mins:secs |
| /BJ | Touch embedded dates in picture file properties |
| /BD | Touch embedded dates in document properties (structured storage file formats) |
| /H | Displays this information |
Enter the time and date parameters in your regional format as set in Control Panel, Regional Settings.
To touch all the files in a directory:
TouchCmd ... /F "dirname/*.*"
To touch all the files in a directory & sub-directories:
TouchCmd ... /F /S "dirname/*.*"
To touch a directory:
TouchCmd ... /O "dirname"
To touch a directory and all sub-directories:
TouchCmd ... /O /S "dirname"
To touch all files and directories in a directory:
TouchCmd ... /F /O "dirname/*.*"
To touch all files, directories, and sub-directories in a directory:
TouchCmd ... /F /O /S "dirname/*.*"
Note that the above examples quote the directory/filename to cater for names that contains spaces.
This changes the last modified timestamp by -12 hours:
TouchCmd /M /F /E-0:12:0:0 filename.ext
In conjunction with our free FileTms utility (which you can download from our web site), TouchCmd allows you to save and restore file timestamps.
1. Use FileTms to output the file's current timestamp values to a batch file using command line redirection:
c:\>filetms filename.ext -t > tpcmd.bat
The tpcmd.bat file created then looks something like this:
TouchCmd /F /C /D09/05/1980 /T01:00:00 filename.ext
TouchCmd /F /A /D24/07/2002 /T22:10:03 filename.ext
TouchCmd /F /M /D09/05/1980 /T01:00:00 filename.ext
2. Perform your file operations that result in the timestamps changing.
3. Run the tpcmd.bat batch file to restore the original timestamps.
The OK and Apply buttons on the main Property Page dialog do not perform the Touch operation.
The file's Last Accessed time may change to the current date and time after you have touched the values. Because any file access can alter the Last Accessed time, it may be difficult to ascertain that this feature works correctly. In particular, some applications have their own property sheet pages that access the file, and consequently alter the Last Accessed time.
Prior to V5.2 TouchPro converted the file time (UTC) to local time using Windows functions that have existed since Windows NT. These functions were flawed when the file time was in a period outside the current daylight saving time (DST) period. However, since Windows Explorer (before Vista) also used the same flawed functions, the result was consistent with what Windows itself displayed. From Windows Vista, Explorer uses newer functions that correctly convert file times across DST periods - so exposing the issue.
From V5.2, having abandoned support for all versions of Windows prior to XP, TouchPro now uses the newer Windows functions to do its conversions.
The result is that with Windows Vista & later Windows operating systems, setting times in non-current DST periods now works correctly and matches what those versions of Windows displays them as. Unfortunately, Windows XP (as of SP3) still appears to show file times using the older functions, so under XP, Explorer displays the file times incorrectly across DST periods.
If you have access to both Windows XP & Vista (or later OS's) you can verify this display anomaly by copying a file (with a timestamp in the non-current DST period) between the systems and examining the file's timestamps shown by Explorer on those operating systems - you'll normally see a 1 hour difference (if your DST time change is 1 hour).
See the TouchPro FAQ on our web site http://www.jddesign.co.uk/ for other general information on file timestamps.
The registered version of TouchPro adds the following advanced features:
The easiest way to register is online using one of the secure card payment facilities on our web site.
When you receive your registration information, enter your registered name and number into the About dialog box. You can access this dialog from the main TouchPro dialog About button.
You must enter the information exactly as it appears. The case, spaces, and punctuation of the name are significant, The registration number is composed of the characters 0-9, A-F and again, the case of the letters is significant. If you register the set of utilities, be sure to use the correct registration number for each product.
You can check that registration has worked by re-displaying the About box from the main dialog. When the product is successfully registered your registration name is displayed in the About dialog rather than the entry fields.
Any updates to the current version are free to registered users by downloading the latest version from our web site. You may need to email us for an updated registration number.
Locate the "TouchPro" item in the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs list.
We maintain a list of frequently asked questions on our web site. If you have a technical question, please check there to see if you can find an answer before contacting us.
We will post the latest versions of our utilities on our web site as soon as they are available, so please take a look to keep up to date and to see what other software and services we offer.
Web Site: http://www.jddesign.co.uk/
If you have any suggestions for improvements to any of our utilities, please contact us via email (our up-to-date address is on our web site's contacts page). It's always good to hear from people using our products, and we appreciate your taking the time to tell us.
Thanks
JD Design