Win XP Blue Writing...

[Oli F]

I have Windows XP Home Edition on a capable computer,
which Ive had for coming up for 2 years now. Everything
is fine, except when i browse through the files on my
computer, some of the file names are in BLUE, instead of
the usual black. Does this mean there is a problem? Can
anyone help?

Oli.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

By design, WinXP compresses files that do not get used frequently,
and, if you've left the default settings intact, displays those files
in blue.

In Windows Explorer, Tools > Folder Options > View > Advanced
settings: Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.


Bruce Chambers

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[Malvern]

I have Windows XP Home Edition on a capable computer,
which Ive had for coming up for 2 years now. Everything
is fine, except when i browse through the files on my
computer, some of the file names are in BLUE, instead of
the usual black. Does this mean there is a problem? Can
anyone help?

Oli.

No problem. Blue means they're compressed files/folders.

Malv

 

[Chris Lanier]

Greetings

Files that have blue text are compressed in order to save disk space.

 

[David Hollway]

I have Windows XP Home Edition on a capable computer,
which Ive had for coming up for 2 years now. Everything
is fine, except when i browse through the files on my
computer, some of the file names are in BLUE, instead of
the usual black. Does this mean there is a problem? Can
anyone help?

Oli,

No, this is normal. The NTFS disk format supports compression of files (in
other words, files are compressed automatically by the filesystem, and the
fact that they're compressed is invisible to applications). By default,
Windows XP colours the labels for such files & folders in blue, to highlight
them.
If you don't like this behaviour, you can turn it off in this way:

1) open a Windows Explorer folder, e.g My Computer.
2) From the Tools menu, select "Folder Options"
3) In the Folder Options Dialog, click the "View" tab
4) In the "Advanced Settings" list, scroll down to "Show Encrypted or
compressed NTFS files in color" and un-check it.
5) Click OK.

Hope this helps!

-David Hollway [MVP]
mail as in header - remove spam blocker

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have Windows XP Home Edition on a capable computer,
which Ive had for coming up for 2 years now. Everything
is fine, except when i browse through the files on my
computer, some of the file names are in BLUE, instead of
the usual black. Does this mean there is a problem? Can
anyone help?

Those indicate files that have been compressed in the NTFS file system -
maybe by Diskcleanup as rarely used, maybe for other reasons. Restore
points for one, uninstall folders for Windows Update Hotfixes are
another (the Windows\$NTUninstall. . . ones). It does not stop the
files being opened in the ordinary way if they turn out to be needed.
For example the ServicePackSourceFiles after installing SP1 are needed
as backups, but only rarely, so that folder is a good candidate for
compression

 

[Vendetta]

File marked in Blue are either compressed or encrypted NTFS files.

There is an option to disable them being shown in colour in the 'Folder
Options' menu under Tools. Go into the menu, click the 'view' tab, i think
the option is 3rd from the bottom. 'Show encrypted or compressed NTFS file
in colour'. Simply untick the box and they should go back to being black.

Though, i would recommend leaving them as blue, just incase someone deletes
them not knowing what they were.