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PowerShell - Review Explorer Recent Items

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Review Explorer Recent Items

Code Properties

  • Language: PowerShell
  • COM Objects: WScript.Shell

Overview

PowerShell script that reads Windows Explorer recent items (shortcuts) and displays the target files with their last access timestamps.

Code

# create Shell object
$sh = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
 
# specify path
$RecentItemsPath = "$Env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Recent"
 
# get recent items
$RecentItems = Get-ChildItem -Path $RecentItemsPath -Filter "*.lnk" | 
    Sort-Object LastAccessTime
 
# loop and output
$RecentItems | ForEach-Object {
    $lnk = $sh.CreateShortcut($_.FullName)
    $tgt = $lnk.TargetPath
    if ($tgt) {
        if (Test-Path -Path $tgt -PathType Leaf) {
            Write-Host "$($_.LastAccessTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'))   $($lnk.TargetPath)"
        }
    }
}

Usage

# run script to see recent files
.\Get-RecentItems.ps1
 
# export to file
.\Get-RecentItems.ps1 | Out-File -FilePath "RecentItems.txt"

Appendix

Note created on 2024-09-18 and last modified on 2024-12-31.

See Also

(c) No Clocks, LLC | 2024

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