Windows 7 Explorer Columns: meaning of "Date" in relation to "Date Modified"/"Date Created"?

Question

I've managed to alter the creation/modified date on a large number of files that I've moved with a well known 3rd party software.

The only field that seems to point to a valid period of time is "Date".

Can you please explain the difference between "Date" and "Date Modified"/"Date Created"?

LE: Any ideea how to access the "Date" field in Perl, in order to update "Date Created" with the same value?

Solution

For most files it looks like the "Date" field is a duplicate to the "Date Created" field.

However, if the file is an image and contains EXIF information then the "Date" field pertains to the EXIF date assigned to the image. Typically a camera will assign this field when a photo is taken. If the image does not contain EXIF information, then again -Windows appears to simply display the "Date Created" in place of "Date".

There may be other file types that contain meta data for date information, but I am not familiar with such cases.

"Date Modified"/"Date Created" pertain to the file itself, these can change if you modify the file in any way, or if you create a new copy of the file. Note that in either of these instances the EXIF date field can stay the same.

Also note that the EXIF date field is less likely to be changed as you share/move the file around operating systems and services, where as the "Date Modified"/"Date Created" are more likely to change in such scenarios.

As far as modifying the EXIF date, you can do that using perl or many other freely available tools. Heck, you can even do it in the Windows 7 explorer "properties" dialog:

Comments

[Nick]

It's not Date Taken, that is for sure, I have video files there also, and they still have Date. It seems to be very close to Date Created, or identical to Date Created.

[dtmland]

@Nick For images with EXIF information, the field will correspond to the EXIF Date Taken. I just verified it on my machine. However, for any other files I am not sure what Windows decides to display in this field. What file type is your video?

[dtmland]

@Nick I removed the EXIF information from one of my images, and it looks like Windows decides to display the "Date Created" date in its place. I've update my answer to reflect this.

[Synetech]

Also, the Date column always puts folders before files unlike the other date columns which put them before or after depending on the direction of the sort.