# Number of Times a file was Accessed



## cabledevin (Jul 16, 2007)

Hello again. I need to know if there is any possible way to find the number of times a file was been accessed on Windows Vista. No matter how hard or theoretical it is, is it possible? Thank you


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## aciid (Jul 18, 2008)

Hi cabledevin,

Windows only registers the last time & date a file has been access, no way of knowing how many times it was opened since it was created there. However it is theoretically possible to make a script/program to count how many times specific files has been opened. I suppose some kind of PC monitoring program, kinda like a keylogger, would register that aswell, and just filter out the keystrokes etc.


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## LMiller7 (Jun 21, 2010)

The easiest way to do this would be to configure security auditing on the file in question. You can access this from the security tab of the file properties dialog. You will see the results in the security section of the event viewer. You can configure logging when the file was accessed, by what account, etc. Before this will work you must enable security logging as described here:
Enable Auditing for Security Events on Windows Vista Systems

NOTE: This will not work with Vista home editions. You must also be an admin on the computer and the file must be on an NTFS volume.


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## cabledevin (Jul 16, 2007)

Thank you!


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