Question

I would like to put the date the application was built somewhere in the application. Say the about box. Any ideas how this can be done? I need to do this for C# but I am also looking for a general idea, so you can answer this for any specific language other than C#.

Answer 1

Typically we just go with the executable’s last modify date. This will be set when the exe is built and usually never changes (short of someone actually editing the file). When the file is installed, copied, moved, etc, Windows doesn’t change that value.

DateTime buildDate =     new FileInfo(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location).LastWriteTime; 

We use this technique for the about dialogs in our C# and C++ apps.