HowCurio file-date practice, original fictional text.

Download file-date-sample.txt into a NEW private practice folder. Its download date is not the date of the recorded original. Inspect Properties, then make a copy in a NEW subfolder and compare Date created and Date modified. Rename only your new copy, then append a line and save. Record what your actual tools do. Do not change personal files to reproduce the artificial source timestamps.

file-date-observation.json records a native PowerShell 7.6.5 / NTFS Copy-Item, same-folder Move-Item rename, and append test. The original source creation and write times were deliberately set on a new synthetic file. No File Explorer UI, cloud sync, ZIP or download timestamp preservation was tested. Times in that record are UTC; local Windows displays can use another time zone. Copy and rename preserved the original 54 bytes. The edit changed it to 83 bytes.

Free to use and adapt. No scripts or private data are included in the sample.