Get A Complete History Of Files Edited By Programs On Your PC

Nir Sofer, the intrepid developer behind NirSoft, is always pumping out free and useful tools for Windows. You may not need them all the time, but when it comes to password recovery, network monitoring, or getting intimate with the command line, his site should be one of your first ports of call. Sofer’s latest project is OpenSaveFilesView, a utility that reveals most files that have been recently opened or saved on your system.

Programs that involve editing files usually have a “recent items” list, though these lists are often limited to five or so entries, leaving you in the lurch if you need to go back further. That’s where OpenSaveFilesView can save the day, helping you to track down files you’ve been tinkering with when you can’t quite remember the filename, making a standard search fruitless.

For the technically inclined, the tool cracks open the registry and shows the contents of the following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerComDlg32OpenSaveMRU
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerComDlg32OpenSavePidlMRU

The program won’t works for every app though, only those that uses Windows’ in-built open and save dialogs, so anything that uses its own implementation won’t be found in these keys or OpenSaveFilesView.

OpenSaveFilesView [NirSoft via Software Crew]