Is there a way to see a history of files run?

Question

When you run a file, is there a history where you can see every file you've run so far?

Answer 1

Hello. Windows doesn’t keep a single, built-in “history of every file ever run” that you can browse like a browser history.

You can use Event Viewer for this, but logging needs to be enabled first. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Creation" /success:enable

From then on, every file or program you launch will be recorded as Event ID 4688 under Event Viewer → Windows Logs → Security. This captures all process starts, but it won’t show anything from before you turned it on.