Recipe Difficulty: Medium
Python Version: 2.7
Operating System: Linux
Shortcut files, also known as link files, are common across operating system platforms. They enable the user to use one file to reference another, located elsewhere on the system. On the Windows platform, these link files also record historical access to the files they reference. Generally, the creation time of a link file represents the first access time of a file with that name, and the modification time represents the most recent access time of the file with that name. Using this, we can extrapolate a window of activity and learn about how, and where, these files were accessed.