Expert: viksra - 1/31/2009

Question
QUESTION: i had accesed my girlfreinds account.der i found a a mail sen tby her self on d same id.it had a conversation of her and her ex boyfriend. d chat log was dated 12 th jan 2009. but wen i askd her bout d same she sed she had dat chat log in her gmail account and she saved dat chat log on her comp on 12th of jan.but d conversation d chat log had is actully 2 years old..i wanna kno is it possible dat chat logs date chages as per your computers date.??

ANSWER: Hi Jason,

Yes. When you save a file to your computer as a new file (in this case, she saved the chat log as a new file onto her computer), the file will show the date that it was created on the computer, and not the date that the log was actually made. So chances are if she is saying it's an old log that she saved on the computer, she's not lying. The computer will only keep the original date if you cut & paste file from one source to another or if you move it (example, from computer #1 to  computer #2). However, when simply creating a new file, the new file will assume the new date that it was created. So, to make a long story short, yes it is possible that the chat logs date was changed according to the date that she saved it onto her computer.

-viksra

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: k thnx for dat info..but d thing is dat..d chat log is an msn entesion add on format.and d ate is lyk chat session starts :12th jan 2009,followed by d conevrsation..is it possible, dat date can also change as per her computers date.?

Answer
Hey Jason,

The date in the chat log is set according to the computer that it is typed on. If her computer's date was set to the year 1929, then the chat log would say 1929. If the computer was set to a date in the future such as 2099, the chat log will say 2099. So basically, the chat log will say whatever date the computer was set to. If the date was correctly set at that time, then that's when she talked to him.

-viksra