“Install date”

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I’m not sure whether this is a 22H2 issue but it is confluent with installing this update, which I recently completed.

I recently went to uninstall a program – using the utility Revo Uninstall which lists the installed programs/etc along with some information, including the “install date”.  This should obviously be the date the program was installed.

However, the utility shows every program to have an install date of 2023-01-11 – which is the  date I installed the 22H2 update.

This doesn’t seem right, but I note the same thing shows on my two computers, desktop and laptop, that I upgraded at the same time.

Would the update have ‘corrupted’ whatever system Windows uses for storing installation records?

I guess it doesn’t matter too much on the surface, but one does wonder about these things.

Richard

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lmacri

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I have updated to 22H2 and that did not occur in my 3 PCs.
This may be a Revo Uninstall thing. Select the properties of a file Revo says was installed 1/11/2023 and see if the Date Created in the properties agrees with that date. Date Created is the install date.

HTH, Dana:))

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Richard Merchant

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Only within Revo Uninstaller?

What dates are listed at Settings, Apps or Control Panel, Programs?

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Yes, it could be a Revo thing I’m sure (but presumably Revo gets the information from somewhere – the Registry?)

And quick look at ‘file properties’ for a few programs do not reflect the wrong 2023-1-11 date but rather what I think would be the correct earlier installation date.

I went to the Control Panel, programs and features and they too show many – albeit not all – programs being installed on that common date of 2023-01-11.  I’m not counting because I have far too many programs installed (my bad) but I would estimate about 50-60% of the installed programs listed there show that common date.

The others show earlier dates – albeit not as early as some were installed – but likely dating back to a previous operating system install/update.  I’ve not done a ‘fresh install’ for some time because trying to reinstall all those vitally important programs (not!!!) would be such a pain.  Lazy.  Maybe time to do a fresh windows install sometime, but it would be painful – and that’s another topic.

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Very interesting.
Many of my programs listed in the Apps & features settings have the date listed as created as the date I upgraded that PC to 22H2. None of these programs has that date as the Date created in Properties (aka they don’t match). All Microsoft apps and some others still show the correct install date in the Apps Settings.

Revo must get its data from this Windows Apps setting. Have not seen this “wrong date created” in the Apps & features Windows setting as a side effect of the 22H2 upgrade. Anyone else heard of this?

HTH, Dana:))

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This had me intrigued, so I brought up Revo Uninstaller version 2.1.1 portable and it showed most of the installed programs with a date of 1/30/2021. This was the date I installed Windows 10 v-2004. There were later dates, but none earlier.

Looking at the control panel, Programs and Features applet, I see some of the programs with the install date of 1/30/21 but not all of the programs that Revo showed with that date. There were some earlier and some later than that date.

Looking at the folders in “C:\Program files” or “C:\Program files (x86)”, none of modified dates I checked had the date of 1/30/2021.

This is not associated with 32 bit or 64 bit programs only. It is just weird.

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Well, I thought it was weird, and interestingly inconsistent.

I agree that many of the Microsoft Apps appear to be dated as of “install” but not all.  Various MS Visual C++ 20xx versions are all 2023-01-11 and I don’t think they would have been changed with the 22H2 update.

Randomly scanning, I see there are two ‘Microsoft Windows Desktop Runtime’ versions – 3.3.32 (x64) and 6.0.13 (x64), both dated 2021-01-11.  Are those actually different programs?  They are apparently something to do with .NET which is above my pay grade.

The programs which have changed dates, and those which don’t,  have no discernible pattern.  There must be something but it isn’t obvious to  me.  Having said that, all of the programs that show up in Revo have the changed date.  And I would guess that Revo gets it’s information from the registry so might it be that programs that were installed using some other – ‘non conventional’ – technique are not identified by Revo and not changed by the Win10 update process?

This is all above me.  One could wonder whether it could cause problems, though – does anything (program permissions, activation, etc.) depend on information about the program installation date recorded in the registry?

Richard

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Richard Merchant wrote:

…However, the utility shows every program to have an install date of 2023-01-11 – which is the date I installed the 22H2 update.

Hi Richard Merchant:

I checked after reading your post and was surprised to see something similar on my Dell Inspiron 5584. My Revo Uninstaller Free Portable lists 50 installed programs on the Uninstaller tab, and 17 of those programs have an “Installed On” date of 20-Jan-2021 at 6:39 PM (a partial list is shown in my first image below). Of those 17 programs, 8 also have an “Installed On” date of 20-Jan-2021 at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features, while another 9 appear to have the correct “Installed On” date in Control Panel that date back to Aug and Sept of 2020 (i.e, that pre-date 20-Jan-2021).  Note that I performed a reset to factory condition in late Aug 2020, which is why I have no third-party software installed prior to that date.

According to my notes 20-Jan-2021 was the date I installed a Feature Update that updated my Win 10 Pro OS from v1909 (OS Build 18363.1016) to v2004 (OS Build 19041.746). The only thing I can see in common with these 17 programs is that all of them have not been updated since I installed Win 10 Pro v2004 on 20-Jan-2021 (e.g., Microsoft Money Plus Sunset Edition, Karen’s Replicator, etc.).
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2486 * Firefox v109.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.20.230-1.0.1868 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0

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It depends on how you do the OS upgrade. If it was via a full upgrade (e.g. 1909 to 2004 or via MCT or an ISO) then the install date will reflect the date of the OS upgrade. If the upgrade was done via an enablement package, the install date won’t change.

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steeviebops wrote:

It depends on how you do the OS upgrade. If it was via a full upgrade (e.g. 1909 to 2004 or via MCT or an ISO) then the install date will reflect the date of the OS upgrade. If the upgrade was done via an enablement package, the install date won’t change

Hi Richard Merchant:

Further to steeviebops’ post # 2524978, I found an 04-Feb-2018 reply by Eric Ber (Microsoft Agent / Moderator) in the Microsoft Answers thread Installed Program List – Wrong Install Dates that states that this is expected behaviour after a “major” Feature update that changes the Win 10 version. They went on to post that “Some programs have to be reinstalled by Windows, after a major version upgrade. Therefore, will the install date reflect this” and suggested that users should post feedback using Microsoft’s Feedback Hub app if they didn’t like this behaviour.

Even if it’s expected behaviour it still seems odd to me. As far as I know, the only time I’ve had something like this happen before was several years ago when a failed Windows Update messed up the permissions in the Windows registry of my Vista SP2 laptop that caused all sorts of glitches and unexpected errors [e.g., I would see an error 0x8DDD0002 (“Must be logged on as an Administrator”) when I tried to launch Windows Update].  The problem couldn’t be solved by a System Restore, and I had to run a utility called SubInACL to give the System and Administrator groups full read/write/delete access to some of my registry keys – see my 28-Feb-2011 post in my thread File / Registry Permission Problem – Vista SP2 in the WhatTheTech forum. After running the SubinACL tool I noticed that many of the “Installed On” dates at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features had been reset to the date I ran the SubInACL tool.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2486 * Firefox v109.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.20.230-1.0.1868 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0

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Richard Merchant

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steeviebops wrote:

It depends on how you do the OS upgrade. If it was via a full upgrade (e.g. 1909 to 2004 or via MCT or an ISO) then the install date will reflect the date of the OS upgrade. If the upgrade was done via an enablement package, the install date won’t change.

My upgrade was an enabled package and it did change the install date.

My concern is that the dates shown in the Apps & features settings of Windows does not agree with the Date Created in the Properties of the app’s actual file….a conflict of dates in two different Windows settings (Windows Apps & features and Windows File Explorer).  This is a glitch in the upgrade such that some Apps kept the correct Date Created and others were changed to the upgrade date.

It appears that this is a update glitch that was not immediately notice by most (including myself) users.  I rarely bring up that Windows Apps & features setting.

Hopefully Revo Uninstaller users will report this to Revo and maybe Revo’s experts can find out what went wrong.

HTH, Dana:))

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I see no evidence this is an issue with Revo.  I simply was using the program to notice this.

Here’s further interesting stuff.

7-Zip files located on my system.   The StartMenu folders have been re-dated.  The file shortcuts themselves have not, and indeed the program executive files have not been re-dated either.

I searched the registry for 7-Zip.  Every entry in the registry has a date of 2023-01-11 or later.

So I interpret to mean that the registry itself has been (entirely?) rewritten by the update.

Richard

 

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Thanks for your post – I just read it more carefully, and the link you posted.

So this seems to be behavior expected by Microsoft, related to the version update process.  The logic they give is, in my view, an excuse, not a reason, and isn’t in fact very logical to me.  “A random set of programs need to pretend that they’ve been reinstalled”??  I won’t call that an explanation.

I’m guessing that not too many people notice it, nor complain via the Feedback Hub link they give.

I think it’s annoying enough to make that complaint and I’ll do so.  Certainly not mission-critical for me, though I could imagine it being so for some, and I’d describe it as a bug that should be repaired.

I’ll mark this as “Resolved” as the behavior has been noted and ‘explained’ (albeit not truly resolved).

Richard

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Richard Merchant wrote:

So this seems to be behavior expected by Microsoft, related to the version update process. The logic they give is, in my view, an excuse, not a reason, and isn’t in fact very logical to me. “A random set of programs need to pretend that they’ve been reinstalled”??

Not on my Windows 10.
Updated to 22H2 on Oct. 18.
No software installations date changed.
Installation date changes may relate to Microsoft’s own Store apps/Software but surely not to 3rd party software.

I use free portable Revo uninstaller.

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Interesting.  I wonder what is different about your system.

However what you say is certainly not true, as pointed out by several of us (and the reference from 2018):  lots of non-Microsoft store apps have had their install dates changed on our systems.

Richard

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Alex5723

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Microsoft can’t “re-install” 3rd party software.

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Alex5723 wrote:

Microsoft can’t “re-install” 3rd party software.

Hi Alex5723:

Not “re-install” in the strictest sense of the word, perhaps, but couldn’t a Feature update change metadata like the installation date if the .DLLs are re-registered in the Windows registry?

There is a known bug in Dell’s SupportAssist OS Recovery software (a.k.a. Dell SupportAssist Remediation) where hundreds of “Successful Application Reconfiguration” events are logged every day in the Event Viewer (Source = MsiInstaller, Event ID = 1035, Description =”Windows Installer reconfigured the product”) when Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery creates a daily snapshot / system repair point. The affected programs aren’t being “re-installed”, and I don’t believe this bug changes the “Installed On” date of affected programs at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features, but see the attached image as well as my 02-Jul-2021 post on page 8 of DELLKaren’s “Successful Application Reconfiguration” and SupportAssist about how sloppy programming of Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery is likely triggering these types of product reconfiguration events for programs that use .msi installers (e.g., iTunes, MS Office, etc.) .
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2486 * Firefox v109.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.20.230-1.0.1868 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0

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Alex5723

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I don’t and never used DELL PCs so I don’t know.
Microsoft should never touch 3rd party installed software.

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Hi Richard Merchant:

I opened a support request with Revo at support@revouninstaller.com today and they immediately responded as follows:

“The behavior you are describing is normal after a major update of Windows.

You can change the way Revo Uninstaller freeware lists program by going to the Options menu (Alt+U shortcut), from there go to the “Uninstaller” section and from there in the “General” tab click on “Use program’s uninstall data to get the Install Date property“. After this click on the Ok button to confirm the changes.

This should make Revo Uninstaller list the correct install dates…”

That configuration change in Revo Uninstaller Free reduced my number of programs that have an Install Date of 20-Jan-2021 (i.e., the same date Windows Update installed my Win 10 Feature update that changed my version from v1909 to v2004) down from 17 to 3 as shown below.

However, this doesn’t explain why my Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features still has an “Installed On” date of 20-Jan-2021 for 8 of these programs (see my previous images in post # 2524785). I don’t know where Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features finds the “Installed On” date (perhaps from some registry value or property of a .dll/.exe file) but the reply from Revo Support seems to confirm that this value can be changed during a major Windows update like a Feature update.

I also submitted feedback to Microsoft on 23-Jan-2023 via my Feedback Hub app at https://aka.ms/AAjciv3 but haven’t received a response so I don’t hold out much hope that this anomaly will be fixed.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2486 * Firefox v109.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.20.230-1.0.1868 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Revo Uninstaller Free Portable v2.4.2 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0

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Was this issue ever really resolved.

I have revouninstaller on win 10, win 11 and an older win 8.1 laptop .

I never really noticed before, but all of them show incorrect program install dates

The option:

“Use program’s uninstall data to get program’s property”,

If not, where is the program getting the install date from ?

Anyway, as far as I can tell, on win 11, using this option seems to have fixed the issue. On the win 10 computer, some programs still show an incorrect install date. On the win 8.1 laptop with a really old revouninstaller which does not have that option, all have wrong install dates of 3 days ago

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Revo Support did give you somewhat more detail than they gave me….

lmacri wrote:

You can change the way Revo Uninstaller freeware lists program by going to the Options menu (Alt+U shortcut), from there go to the “Uninstaller” section and from there in the “General” tab click on “Use program’s uninstall data to get the Install Date property“

I can’t confirm that this is completely true.

I went to Revo – Options – “All Programs“- General tab – “use install date….”

However I still have many programs showing the current ‘update’ date (11-1-2023) inclucing some shareware programs (Belarc, Glary, and the like) and the oldest date of any program is showing as 06-2022 which is, I would guess, the date of the previous major Windows update.

So I interpret that the dates are still not showing correctly, either in Revo or under Windows on my system.   Still not the most important of problems…

Richard

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I use the free portable Geekuninstaller.
Installed dates are correct.

Windows 10 22H2.

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