expressing preference

[olviga]

Dear Teacher,
I was teaching "Expressing preferences" to my students the other day when we came across such an example: 'I would rather you had told me before.' There were also some examples with prefer with none of them referring to past, only to future. Is it possible to use prefer in a similar way, I mean when you want to express your preference about something that happened in the past?
Thanks in advance
olviga

[engee30]

The only thing that comes into my mind is:

I'd prefer it if you had told me before.

[bhaisahab]

'I would have preferred...'

[RonBee]

Possibly:

I would have preferred not to have to read that book, but it was a homework assignment.