File Copy Detection

[massivefermion]

Hi
In some movies,it is shown that somebody has a file on a flash memory which is a threat to some criminal and when the criminal takes the flash memory using some kind of a trick or another s\he checks the file and makes sure the file is not copied.I wanna ask is it actully possible in Windows to check whether a file is copied before or not?How?What about other OSs?
Thanks

[Suzie999]

I doubt it on windows, although an indicater of whether your file has been copied from somewhere else is the modification date being earlier than its creation date.

[gerbil]

To check when last copied or viewed.... without accessing the file yourself you check its Date Accessed attribute (just go to its parent folder, or the root and check from there).
Of course, all these attributes are metadata, and being such can be manipulated at will... so a canny file copier would do that when he had finished his sneak preview.
Oops.... a secret, given away.

[massivefermion]

So there is nothing built in to the windows for that(I mean something only indicating that the file was copied).But is there a software for that?

[Suzie999]

Like you say "movies" it's make believe.

I'd be interested to hear your motivation for such a quest.

[gerbil]

"So there is nothing built in to the windows for that..?" - If they actually opened the file then that will show in the profile they used under My Recent Documents, but if they merely opened the folder and dragged/copied the file then all you will see there is the folder reference. If they ran some program to do it, yes, you can see that, but not what they did with that program unless the program records its history.
"But is there a software for that?" - there always is....

[Reverend Jim]

Just have a look at the output from Sysinternals' Filemon to see what it is possible to detect.

[massivefermion]

Pure curiosity,suzie!
And thanks gerbil and Jim.
But Jim,That seems to be a software that monitors the actions of your own system.What I wanna know is about when you recieve a file from outside your computer.

P.S.
How can I quote posts?

[gerbil]

"What I wanna know is about when you recieve a file from outside your computer." - nope, in that case, there is nothing that will tell you about what the file has endured before you got it. If someone has prepared a file for you and is to transmit it to you, you can always request that they encrypt it, and give you the key separately.
"How can I quote posts?" - I just highlight and drag between a couple of quotation marks.

[Reverend Jim]

If you click the "?" in the edit bar or go here you'll see how to quote and use the other markdown featured.