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Every time you access a file on your windows computer, a Last Accessed file attribute is updated. You will likely not need this, so you can remove some overhead by following this guide. This guide is for Windows XP. Last access is disabled by default in Windows Vista.
Please Note: This guide involves working with the Windows Registry. If this is your first time editing the registry, please read this guide to get you started.
Download the Registry Hack
If you don’t feel confident working with the Registry Editor, you can download this registry hack. Simply extract the file and double click on DisableLastAccess.reg. To re-enable the Last Access option, double click on ReEnableLastAccess.reg
Disable Last Access File Updates
1. Press Start, type regedit in the search bar and press Enter (or press Winkey+R)
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
3. Update the value of NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate to 1
4. To undo this change, simply change the value back to 0
In order for this to take effect, you may need to restart your system.
Further Reading:
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