Microsoft Windows uses tunneling to preserve file dates

Microsoft Windows utilizes a feature known as ‘tunneling’ that can cause newly created files to display creation dates from the past. This phenomenon occurs when a user creates a new file with the exact same name as a recently deleted file.

Rather than appearing as a system bug, this behavior is an intentional design choice. Microsoft developer Raymond Chen confirmed as early as 2005 that this mechanism allows information to persist across the deletion and creation of files with identical names, a concept Microsoft has likened to the quantum mechanical ‘tunnel effect’.