python - How do I change the file creation date of a Windows file?

Question

How do I change the file creation date of a Windows file from Python?

Answer 1

Yak shaving for the win.

import pywintypes, win32file, win32con
def changeFileCreationTime(fname, newtime):
    wintime = pywintypes.Time(newtime)
    winfile = win32file.CreateFile(
        fname, win32con.GENERIC_WRITE,
        win32con.FILE_SHARE_READ | win32con.FILE_SHARE_WRITE | win32con.FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
        None, win32con.OPEN_EXISTING,
        win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, None)

    win32file.SetFileTime(winfile, wintime, None, None)

    winfile.close()

Answer 2

I did not want to bring the whole pywin32 / win32file library solely to set the creation time of a file, so I made the win32-setctime package which does just that.

pip install win32-setctime

And then use it like that:

from win32_setctime import setctime

setctime("my_file.txt", 1561675987.509)

---

Basically, the function can be reduced to just a few lines without needing any dependency other that the built-in ctypes Python library:

from ctypes import windll, wintypes, byref

# Arbitrary example of a file and a date
filepath = "my_file.txt"
epoch = 1561675987.509

# Convert Unix timestamp to Windows FileTime using some magic numbers
# See documentation: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/167296
timestamp = int((epoch * 10000000) + 116444736000000000)
ctime = wintypes.FILETIME(timestamp & 0xFFFFFFFF, timestamp >> 32)

# Call Win32 API to modify the file creation date
handle = windll.kernel32.CreateFileW(filepath, 256, 0, None, 3, 128, None)
windll.kernel32.SetFileTime(handle, byref(ctime), None, None)
windll.kernel32.CloseHandle(handle)

For advanced management (like error handling), see the source code of win32_setctime.py.

Answer 3

install pywin32 extension first https://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build%20221/

import win32file
import pywintypes

# main logic function
def changeFileCreateTime(path, ctime):
    # path: your file path
    # ctime: Unix timestamp

    # open file and get the handle of file
    # API: http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32file__CreateFile_meth.html
    handle = win32file.CreateFile(
        path,                          # file path
        win32file.GENERIC_WRITE,       # must opened with GENERIC_WRITE access
        0,
        None,
        win32file.OPEN_EXISTING,
        0,
        0
    )

    # create a PyTime object
    # API: http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/pywintypes__Time_meth.html
    PyTime = pywintypes.Time(ctime)

    # reset the create time of file
    # API: http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32file__SetFileTime_meth.html
    win32file.SetFileTime(
        handle,
        PyTime
    )

# example
changeFileCreateTime('C:/Users/percy/Desktop/1.txt',1234567789)

Answer 4

import os
os.utime(path, (accessed_time, modified_time))

http://docs.python.org/library/os.html

At least it changes the modification time, without using win32 module.

Answer 5

Here's a more robust version of the accepted answer. It also has the opposing getter function. This addresses created, modified, and accessed datetimes. It handles having the datetimes parameters provided as either datetime.datetime objects, or as "seconds since the epoch" (what the getter returns). Further, it adjusts for Day Light Saving time, which the accepted answer does not. Without that, your times will not be set correctly when you set a winter or summer time during the opposing phase of your actual system time.

The major weakness of this answer is that it is for Windows only (which answers the question posed). In the future, I'll try to post a cross platform solution.

def isWindows() :
  import platform
  return platform.system() == 'Windows' 

def getFileDateTimes( filePath ):        
    return ( os.path.getctime( filePath ), 
             os.path.getmtime( filePath ), 
             os.path.getatime( filePath ) )

def setFileDateTimes( filePath, datetimes ):
    try :
        import datetime
        import time 
        if isWindows() :
            import win32file, win32con
            ctime = datetimes[0]
            mtime = datetimes[1]
            atime = datetimes[2]
            # handle datetime.datetime parameters
            if isinstance( ctime, datetime.datetime ) :
                ctime = time.mktime( ctime.timetuple() ) 
            if isinstance( mtime, datetime.datetime ) :
                mtime = time.mktime( mtime.timetuple() ) 
            if isinstance( atime, datetime.datetime ) :
                atime = time.mktime( atime.timetuple() )             
            # adjust for day light savings     
            now = time.localtime()
            ctime += 3600 * (now.tm_isdst - time.localtime(ctime).tm_isdst)
            mtime += 3600 * (now.tm_isdst - time.localtime(mtime).tm_isdst)
            atime += 3600 * (now.tm_isdst - time.localtime(atime).tm_isdst)            
            # change time stamps
            winfile = win32file.CreateFile(
                filePath, win32con.GENERIC_WRITE,
                win32con.FILE_SHARE_READ | win32con.FILE_SHARE_WRITE | win32con.FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
                None, win32con.OPEN_EXISTING,
                win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, None)
            win32file.SetFileTime( winfile, ctime, atime, mtime )
            winfile.close()
        else : """MUST FIGURE OUT..."""
    except : pass    

Answer 6

This code works on python 3 without ValueError: astimezone() cannot be applied to a naive datetime:

wintime = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(newtime).replace(tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)
winfile = win32file.CreateFile(
    fname, win32con.GENERIC_WRITE,
    win32con.FILE_SHARE_READ | win32con.FILE_SHARE_WRITE | win32con.FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
    None, win32con.OPEN_EXISTING,
    win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, None)
win32file.SetFileTime(winfile, wintime)
winfile.close()

Answer 7

Here is a solution that works on Python 3.5 and windows 7. Very easy. I admit it's sloppy coding... but it works. You're welcome to clean it up. I just needed a quick soln.

import pywintypes, win32file, win32con, datetime, pytz

def changeFileCreationTime(fname, newtime):
    wintime = pywintypes.Time(newtime)
    winfile = win32file.CreateFile(fname, win32con.GENERIC_WRITE,
                                   win32con.FILE_SHARE_READ | 
                                   win32con.FILE_SHARE_WRITE | 
                                   win32con.FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
                                   None, 
                                   win32con.OPEN_EXISTING,
                                   win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 
                                   None)

    win32file.SetFileTime(      winfile,  wintime,  wintime,     wintime)
    # None doesnt change args = file,     creation, last access, last write
    # win32file.SetFileTime(None, None, None, None) # does nonething
    winfile.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    local_tz = pytz.timezone('Antarctica/South_Pole')
    start_date = local_tz.localize(datetime.datetime(1776,7,4), is_dst=None)
    changeFileCreationTime(r'C:\homemade.pr0n', start_date )