When was a file accessed?

[Destination]

Windows 7 system

If I browse to a folder, and right click, properties
checking date modified created and accessed for a series of files within that folder, all jpegs
when i open one of the files
and then check its properties again, for some reason the date accessed doesn't seem to be changing, with some of the pictures showing June30th for a file that I have opened and closed several times since.

Any idea whats going on, or am I misunderstanding the 'date accessed' times?

 

[Destination]

The NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate registry setting is enabled by default in Windows 7. This was a performance tweak that many people used in earlier OSes because it prevents a lot of excessive writes to the hard drive.

If you actually want the Last Access date updated the way it used to be, simply set the registry value to 0.

Okay, so if I set this it will write more to drives when browsing files.
Intersting, any way to set this to happen on my mechanical drives but not my SSD or will TRIm take care of the various overwritings and ensure I don't waste space unnecessarily?