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Version 1.0
1 Jan 2018

TouchProp

A command line utility to Get and Set* any Windows Property of a file
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If you've ever needed to access file metadata properties from a command line, batch, PowerShell, or other scripting languages, TouchProp will allow you to access most metadata properties exposed by the Windows property system.

* For those properties that are read-write.

Background

The Windows property system provides a generic interface to access file system and file metadata properties. Almost everything about a file that you can see, and where possible change, via Windows Explorer is exposed through the property system. TouchProp uses this programmatic interface to provide a means of reading and writing these properties from a command line program.

You can find more information on the Windows property system here.

Features

  • Free for trial and personal non-commercial usage with the proviso of a "not registered" message reminder.
  • Licensed as part of our TouchPro product, so if you already have a TouchPro license, you also have TouchProp.
  • Straightforward command line operation; just specify the file name, the property's "canonical" name, and when setting the property, the property value(s).

    e.g. Set the author(s) of a file:
    TouchProp MyDocument.docx System.Author "Me;Myself;I"

    Providing the file type on your Windows system supports the System.Author property, it doesn't matter what type the file is; MS Word doc, docx, MS Excel xlsx, MS PowerPoint pptx, JPEG image, the same command will work if the file type supports it.

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Supported Operating Systems

Windows 7 and later

TouchProp is part of the TouchPro installation.

Change List

V1.0 - 1 Jan 2018

Display file names to the console output as ANSI rather than Unicode because the console support for Unicode is inconsistent and could result in truncation, so replacement by '?' is the lesser of the 2 evils.
Timestamps are now set as local time rather than UTC to mirror the display (which was in local time). Additionally, to cater for some applications using pre-Win7 APIs to do their own local/UTC conversion, there's an additional parameter -ts6 to use the pre-Win7 conversions which only work correctly in the current DST period.

V0.9.1 - 8 Jan 2017

Updated several error report messages to clarify the error in more user friendly terms.

V0.9

 Initial public release.

Limitations

The file system timestamp properties (System.DateCreated, System.DateModified, and System.DateAccessed) have 2 second resolution and return nothing for dates prior to 1/1/1980. See this for an explanation why.

 

 
 

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