Folder & File Name Fonts

[WOLLAM]

I don't know if this is anything important, but I thought I would ask.

About two weeks ago the font color of the file and folder names changed from
black to blue. This did not happen on all files and folders, it seems to be
random, but it happened to more than a few. Is this something I need to
worry about? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

WOLLAM

 

[Bob I]

No, it just means the files and folder are compressed, if encrypted they
will be shown in green.

 

[Big_Al]

WOLLAM said this on 3/10/2010 2:27 PM:

I don't know if this is anything important, but I thought I would ask.

About two weeks ago the font color of the file and folder names changed from
black to blue. This did not happen on all files and folders, it seems to be
random, but it happened to more than a few. Is this something I need to
worry about? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

WOLLAM

Blue means they are compressed to save space. Its an option under disk
cleanup to compress old files too. There is no harm in it, if you try
to read a compressed file the system just uncompresses it.

 

[Ronin]

You have enabled file compression for little-used files. The names of files
that are compressed are blue and the name of any folder that contains
compressed files is likewise blue. To disable this feature, go to the
Properties of the drive, folder or file concerned. For the drive, the option
is right at the bottom: "Compress this drive to save disk space". For
folders and files, the comparable option is behind the Advanced button.

 

[Jose]

I don't know if this is anything important, but I thought I would ask.

About two weeks ago the font color of the file and folder names changed from
black to blue.  This did not happen on all files and folders, it seems to be
random, but it happened to more than a few.  Is this something I need to
worry about?  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

WOLLAM

It means you did it.

Either from during a Disk Cleanup operation or manually by your own
hand.

If the blue color is annoying (like it is to me) uncompress them
through the folder Properties and be more careful. It will not hurt
anything to have compressed files, some folks will say it could lead
to performance issues to which I will say - maybe, but show me some
numbers. Generally there is no need to compress these days. I think
it is from the Win 9X days.

You can totally disable the check for files that need compression when
using Disk Cleanup - that will sometimes save you a lot of time when
Disk Cleanup appears to hang during the operation and looks like it is
broken.

In modern times, there is usually little reason to compress files and
if you have a couple million to check, you may just stop doing Disk
Cleanup altogether since it takes so long to check for files to
compress, so just tell Disk Cleanup not to do it anymore.

Here is how to remove the check:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812248

 

[WOLLAM]

Thank you to all who responded. You have been a great help.