Windows 7 discover who downloaded to me?

[Peter Van Aken]

Is there any utility that will tell me after the fact who downloaded anything to me? In my case just now, it's probably an update of some kind. But it has already happened because I see in Networx > General > Today that sometime this morning about 600 mb was downloaded to my computer. Is there any record of the source of this download in Win7, Firefox or some utility I can use to discover what today's download was, reveal its destination on my machine, and to maintain an automatic log of same in the future? I already know about update permission settings, inbound and outbound rules for software and Windows Update, etc.. But, apparently, I don't know enough because I have no idea what that 600mb was this morning and where on my machine it now resides..

 

[patcooke]

Look in Control Panel, Windows updates, View update history. That wil tell you if it was a MS update. You should consider changing the Windows updates to advise you when updates are available and let you decide which ones you want to accept.

 

[Peter Van Aken]

Look in Control Panel, Windows updates, View update history. That wil tell you if it was a MS update. You should consider changing the Windows updates to advise you when updates are available and let you decide which ones you want to accept.

It wasn't a Windows Update. This has been always set to notify me before download in any case.

 

[patcooke]

Checking for trace of it depends on the transport mechanism used. Maybe an easy way to start by identifying the file would be to search your system for all files dating after a certain date. In the search box for your system drive enter the command:

date:>dd/mm/yy

This will list all files in your system drive (including subfolders) dated after the specified date.

 

[Peter Van Aken]

Checking for trace of it depends on the transport mechanism used. Maybe an easy way to start by identifying the file would be to search your system for all files dating after a certain date. In the search box for your system drive enter the command:

date:>dd/mm/yy

This will list all files in your system drive (including subfolders) dated after the specified date.

I used * and scrolled through all 8/8 files and didn't see it, in fact nothing over about 15kb for any one item, mostly a few hundred cache items that were under 1kb. Mystery to me! Unless I missed it there, but I thought I was looking pretty carefully.

 

[patcooke]

Maybe try a size search, something like

size:>500MB

 

[Peter Van Aken]

Maybe try a size search, something like

size:>500MB

Hey, there's an angle. Thanks, I'll try that this weekend.

 

[Adamsappleone]

Hello Peter,

In Firefox, navigate to the Download Manager by clicking on Tools/Options/Privacy, then Download Manager History.

In IE9, click on the Gear Icon (Tools) in the upper right corner, then click on View Downloads.

In Windows Explorer, Click Start, then Run, then type in %appdata%, then hit Enter, check in that location for the downloaded files.


Hope this helps,
Don

 

[Peter Van Aken]

Hello Peter,

In Firefox, navigate to the Download Manager by clicking on Tools/Options/Privacy, then Download Manager History.

In IE9, click on the Gear Icon (Tools) in the upper right corner, then click on View Downloads.

In Windows Explorer, Click Start, then Run, then type in %appdata%, then hit Enter, check in that location for the downloaded files.


Hope this helps,
Don

Thanks very much!