How does the inheritance and propagation of modified times happen? In order to better put my question, I am going to list three examples:
A folder has three files. One file gets modified (by any user or service or application). This changes the modified time of the folder as well. (Common case)
A folder has three files of which one file gets modified (again it could be by a service, app or user). But this did not change the modified time of the parent folder.
A folder has no file (empty). But let's say when a service ABC runs, it changes its modified time.
So my question is, what is controlling all that? What decides how these modified times will update?
After searching, I found that there is a value in Registry NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate but I think this is not for individual files/folders. Please advise.
NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdateprobably has to do with access times, and the rest of your question has to do with modification times. Beyond that, it depends on how the application works. If it simply opens the file and writes to it, that should not count as a modification to the directory. But, if it creates a temporary file in the same directory, and then deletes it, that will count as a modification to the dir. And some editor-type programs may make a copy of a file, and then delete the original and rename the new file to the original name.dir /a, you’ll see a hidden temporary file. I don’t know whether Word simply deletes that file when it’s done, or whether it deletes the original file and renames the temporary file, but the result is the same.