Still no file comment function after all these years

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmm, still no file comment function built in after all these years. I thought NTFS file system had a little 1500 byte section perfect for the purpose but iirc somebody had the great idea of just sticking the whole file in there if it's small. Could've come in handy to right click on a download named zyqx125qmz22.exe and comment what it is(you can rename but then if you google to find it again you don't remember the original download name.)

It would be nice if it was built in to all file types. I thought XP did it for a few file types. I hoped they'd make it universal.

 

[baarod]

NTFS, the file system, knows NOTHING about the format of the primary stream of the file. What it DOES know about are attributes and alternate streams. There is no 1500 byte "section" of any file that is managed by NTFS. As for "sticking the whole file in there" perhaps you mean resident files where the file "contents" are stored in the Master File Table (MFT) instead of in clusters on disk. Usually this is limited to 700-800 bytes. I doubt that this is where you want to save your comments.

I'd suggest an alternate data stream. Just make sure you name it consistently because it's pretty well hidden. Incidentally, this functionality *IS* built into Windows and has been for about a decade (give or take a few years). What comments you might store in a separate file simply save to the same file using notation like this:

originalfilename.ext:comment.ext

So, say you have that ZIP file and want to potentially include an entire readme file with it just save the readme content as

foo.zip:readme.txt.

Only it's not that easy!

In Windows 2000 you could just edit the Comments attribute on most any file by right clicking and selecting the Summary tab. This was cool. Microsoft turned it off to "help" the simpler folks out there. You see, since that additional information was not stored in the "file" but rather in an alternate NTFS stream it would be lost if that file were copied to a non-NTFS volume. You'd get a scary "alternate stream" dialog that was deemed to confusing for mere mortals.

In addition, they altered the common file dialogs to reject the colon character to prevent the nifty trick of using alternate stream naming like foo.zip:readme.txt BUT the feature is still there in the filesystem.

Here's how to use it in 7:

Press Windows+r to bring up the Run... dialog. Type "notepad", drag the file you'd like to comment onto the dialog, append :comment to the end of the line and hit Enter. The line will look like this:

notepad d:\Desktop\wep.zip:comment

You'll get invited to create a new file that you can type or paste content into and then save. This content will be stored along with the file in a named alternate stream that you can access in the same way as you created it. Windows+r, type notepad drag the file, append :comment and hit enter.

If you want to make things easier for yourself you can integrate this functionality into the context menu of all files using the Send To feature by creating this file:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\Comment Editor.vbs

containing this line:

WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "notepad " & WScript.Arguments(0) & ":comments.txt"

Some notes:

The word :comment is not special, you can name the alternate stream whatever you want as long as it's a filesystem legal string. Neither the size or presence of the alternate streams show up in Explorer so they make a nifty place to hide stuff. If want a list of files that have alternate streams you'll need to use a command prompt with the /r switch. Also, that bit about copying files with alternate streams to non-NTFS volumes still holds --you'll get a message about it if you try.

There appears to be a way to restore the old Windows 2000 functionality to selected files in 7 as well. It would involve some more investigation but if there's any interest I'll work on it.

 

[MilesAhead]

There's no need to PM me just because you reply to my post. I'm notified of follow ups. The inner workings of the file system aside, seems like after all these years a comment function in the context menu should be doable for all files. It shouldn't be up to me to do it. Evidently there was demand for it since it was half-assed implemented in earlier versions of Windows. They are indexing everything else whether we like it or not. Seems they could give us 1 kb associated with a file. Sheesh!!

 

[MilesAhead]

Just tried my freebie file commenter I originally wrote back in Win98 days. Seems to work ok in W7 beta 32 bit. The description is on this page: Comment Shell Extension Note that since it's a shell extension it's only supposed to work in 32 bit. MS has this article how to launch the 32 bit shell. I don't have 64 bit so I can't try it out: Some Windows Explorer extensions and some Control Panel items are not displayed on computers that are running an x64-based version of Windows I'm assuming it just launches one explorer window in a separate process, but as I say I don't have 64 bit to try it out. If anyone tries please let me know if it worked in 64 bit W7. Note that the utility is a "hack" in that is just uses a flat file as the "database" for the comments. But for that reason it's been working pretty well from Win98 all the way up to W7.

 

[patrickbdunlap]

I assumed WinFS was being developed to replace NTFS but it seems that WinFS is not a complete disk part systems, just a subsystem. I agree, NTFS is OLD and needs to be updated big time.

 

[MilesAhead]

I'm curious if shell extensions work in 64 bit using that MS workaround but I don't want to do a whole install to find out. If my PC had 4+ GB ram I'd probably try the 64 bit but from what I hear you cannot detect any performance improvement with 64 bit unless you have mucho memory. More and more PCs are on the shelf with 6+ GB ram so I guess we'll be finding out soon if any of these context menu gizmos coded in 32 bit work in 64 bit land.

 

[baarod]

There's no need to PM me just because you reply to my post. I'm notified of follow ups. The inner workings of the file system aside, seems like after all these years a comment function in the context menu should be doable for all files.

It is doablable for all files. Just not on all supported file systems. Pity they have to accomodate legacy systems and couldn't force the world to use NTFS exclusively.

It shouldn't be up to me to do it. Evidently there was demand for it since it was half-assed implemented in earlier versions of Windows. They are indexing everything else whether we like it or not. Seems they could give us 1 kb associated with a file. Sheesh!!

But it is up to you to do it. They can't. It would get lambasted as data loss at one extreme or a kludge on the other. That's why it was removed. They not only have given you 1kb associated with a file but terabytes potentially cut up in as many named streams as you'd likely ever use.

How about updating your shell extension to use :stream storage and drop Win98 and non-NTFS support. It would seem to be an improvement for the OS and the extension.

 

[MilesAhead]

How about updating your shell extension to use :stream storage and drop Win98 and non-NTFS support. It would seem to be an improvement for the OS and the extension.

I have a better idea. You are so conversant with file systems create ext5 and we'll all use a free OS with built in comment functions.

Otherwise let me know the rate you're willing to pay for this custom software and I'll consider coding it.

 

[damoh]

mmmmm:shock:

 

[limneos]

Despite the tension in here , thank you , baarod...

I've learned a couple of new things from this thread.

 

[MilesAhead]

How about updating your shell extension to use :stream storage and drop Win98 and non-NTFS support. It would seem to be an improvement for the OS and the extension.

To answer the question seriously. I designed my utility to comment files I downloaded. Therefore I don't want to alter the file. My utility doesn't touch the file at all. It gets the file names from the Shell through the IContextMenu interfaces. If you do md5sum before and after commenting a file it will give the same results. In fact you could paste a checksum in the comment as a way to verify later on that the file hasn't been corrupted over time.

It doesn't have anything to do with NTFS. It works with FAT32 also. It gets the filenames from the shell and uses the paths as keys with up to 4KB -1 of associated comment in a flat file. Very simple and easy to debug. If you commented 1000 files with the max size comment depending on the average length of the paths then it would probably use a little over 5 MB of memory. As time goes on with main memory in the GBs that's a pittance and shouldn't slow the shell down.

I haven't seen any other freeware that does quite the same thing. But will all the download sites there are too many for me to search. Their bots just scarf up your work and post it on their boards. Search and you may find something you like better. For commenting every file on the system I wouldn't recommend it. It's meant as a convenience. The way I used it was to copy the short description from the site where I was downloading software and paste it into the comment as soon as the download completed. If you forget what the download is for because you may have downloaded it a month or 6 months ago you can hover the mouse pointer and let the comment pop up.

I see that it works from Win98 all the way through 32 bit W7 as a feature, not a bug.

 

[GHad]

Hmm, just wonder what this Tags functionality in Win7 is all about? You can show up an extra column at details view and I once saw a way to add tags for file but cannot remember where.

Is there anything known, I think it would be a way of commenting files too

Greetz,
GHad

 

[MilesAhead]

GHad I took a look on MS pages about Tagging and I suspect it's a stream in storage deal. It says it only works for specific file types and definitely not for plain text files. Probably the best candidate would be a file indexer like Locate32. It can track file system changes. We'd just have to convince the developers to add a file annotation function to let users stick in a short comment. They'd probably be reluctant to break working code though. The only 3rd party annotator I remember is something that annotated graphics files. It could hide data inside the file without disturbing the image or some approach like that. I'm not graphics format knowledgeable so maybe that's a stream storage format? I dunno'.

 

[GHad]

Thanks for looking into it. I'll try a bit around and report back...

Greetz,
GHad

 

[GHad]

Heureka... I did it

Hi all...

After having hours of fun coding I came out with a pretty neat solution imho.

What I did:

I started with those alternate data streams (ADS) mentioned above (thanks) and looked and tested around a while and those seemed after all drawbacks well suitable for adding tiny bits of information to a file. Also because the info stays there when you move, copy or rename the file (even over network). So basicly I need this functionality then:

1. Create/Update custom ADS
2. Search for custom ADS content and present a result

As soon as I realized VBScript is able to read and create ADS files point 1 was no big thing. I created two scripts: SetADS and ViewADS. Using them like this:

wscript SetADS.vbs Comment myFile.txt

I can create/update the ADS named Comment on myFile.txt. (ViewADS works the same, but only show the ADS content). Yes, multiple ADS are possible, just replace Comment with Tags for example (only one word and legal file name characters only allowed for a stream name)

For Point 2 the script called FindADS is the bigger problem. First I need to find all finds with a Comment ADS (for example), but easiely done via recursive search an a folder:

wscript FindADS.vbs Comment c:\data

But then how to show the results? It would have liked to integrate it as search connector at the normal search dialoge, but as far as I see it right, only webpages can be used. What other possibilities? Well as those should nicely integrate with Windows7, gadgets may would work but how to open the results? I little application to dock at superbar with a jump list that supports search? Multiple ways, but...

I dicided to go for a Library in the end. Why? Well, I can present a collection of shortcuts without opening an exploror at the real physical folder. As the library stays at your explorer main view you never need to remember a previous search folder. And the library shows the number of matches at the top instead in the statusbar only and you have title displaying for search keywords. Plus it's up to you when you remove or update the library. So search once, work as long as need the result and remove it afterwards. No need to browse anywhere in explorer. I must admit though I also looked at the Searches folder. Those search connectors are XML files also but I wanted to make the scripts work first and started out with libraries already. Maybe this can be changed later if desired.

Okay, how could this be done? It turns out, a library is just a little XML file with special file extension I can write myself. And a library can be opened in explorer via cmd call and thus also by VBScript. So basicly the script does following:

- Ask user for search keywords
- Recursive seach for ADS and make a in string search against content and file path
- Create a result folder and create shortcuts for every file found
- Create a library and point to this folder
- Open the library in a new explorer window

So the search works even when your keyword is found in the path of a file in your search path or any subpath. I just assume you sort you're files anyway

Okay, want to try (I hope it works for you...)? Let's go:

First you need the following scripts I packed up here (WinRar): http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/473379/Releases/VBscript/ADS Set&Find Win7/ADS Set&Find Win7.rar

Expand and drop it somewhere where the scripts are meant to stay (I reference this path as <InstallDir> from now on)

Next is to make the scripts usable. I'll show you my way: to include shortcuts in the SendTo folder (Mine is at: C:\Users\GHad\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo).

Create shortcuts for all three scripts by right dragging them to the SendTo folder and selecting create shortcuts. Now rename and change each shortcuts properties and decide for a stream name, I use Tags for example:

- Rename Shortcut to FindADS.vbs to Find Tags
- Change properties target to: C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "<InstallDir>\FindADS.vbs" Tags
- Rename Shortcut to SetADS.vbs to Set Tags
- Change properties target to: C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "<InstallDir>\SetADS.vbs" Tags
- Rename Shortcut to ViewADS.vbs to View Tags
- Change properties target to: C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "<InstallDir>\ViewADS.vbs" Tags

Allright. From now on I can right click on any file and select Send to... Set Tags to input my tags. I can right click on any folder and select Send to... Find Tags, input my search and hit enter. The search pops up when done.

If there's interest in doing more for integration or any improvment, I'm willing to turn this into open source with help of some more expirienced people. Just send me a message. I would also like to get feedback about if it works for you. Thanks.

The folling issues/drawbacks are still to resolve for my solution:
- No deletion of ADS
- No deletion of created libraries
- No deletion of find result folders
- Only legal file name characters allowed as ADS content

Well, empty ADS consume 0 bytes, libraries can be deleted by user and the find result folders contain only shortcuts, so they won't comsume that much space. For the same search the same output folder will be used so this shouldn't go too big. And for the last glitch. This is only because the content is added to the shortcut name at the result, so an illegal character will mess up the shortcut filename. This can be turned of by editing the VBS script though, but I thought this is a only little mess for a big benifit.

Hope you like the solution, have fun, greetz,
GHad

PS: No warranty at all, see ScriptHeader for license and details

 

[MilesAhead]

TipOff

TipOff

I reworked some of the COM dlls from CommentConfig utility and changed the design. Now instead of having a central file for a system-wide database, when you comment files in a folder, a comment data file is created in that folder. This has several advantages. The data file doesn't care about the drive letter. The base filename is used as the key for the comment search.

You can copy entire folders. It also has a "copy with comment" shell extension that works across networked drives or on the same machine. It copies the files using shell copy and if any in the source are commented, the comments are appended in the destination comment data file. If none exists in the destination folder, it is created. (So of course for things to work on networked drives you will need file create and write permissions. And I believe the shell copy requires the networked drives to be mapped to drive letters.)

Any machine with the comments can have the ToolTips displayed just by installing the shell extensions. For file types that are not archive types, a button is on the Property Page to generate a TreePad file from the comment data file in that folder. If you want to link all the comments together you can just import the files with TreePad or TreePad Lite.

Also included in the help file is info on setting the Windows tooltip delay so you can adjust the lag time for tooltip display.

The other improvement is the comment, instead of a single line of text word-wrapped by the Property Page dialog, supports Return. So at least now you can do some primitive formatting using the Enter key and spaces to align text to some degree.

With v. 1.71 of TipOff I think I've gotten rid of any serious bugs so it's likely to be the last version. Not much sense doing 32 bit shell extensions when everything is going 64 bit. If MS provides some free easy to use 64 bit unmanaged VC++ IDEs then maybe I'll try my hand at some 64 bit shell extensions.

In any case, check out the Half Shell utility on the Hotkeys
page. It's a work-around that allows a lot of 32 bit shell code to
work on 64 bit systems by launching the 32 bit explorer shell from the SysWow64 folder as MS suggested.

I hope people enjoy using TipOff. It's free for use at your own risk, as are all the programs on my site.

 

[johngalt]

Since there is a variety of software mentioned here, both for file commenting purposes and other purpose, I think moving this to the Software section (and pinning it) would be a good idea. However, the initial rants and sarcasm can be done without.

If given the OK by the authors in here, I am going to clean this up and move it to the software section, as these little utilities are *very* handy.

 

[Chappy]

John

We also may do well to look at a sub forum or sticky for member written utilities...?
Of course they'd need to be tested by our staff to make sure they work as expected and contain no hidden (for lack of better term) nasties, not like I think these members would ever even consider this.

Maybe we could bring this up with Brink and z3r010

 

[johngalt]

It has already been discussed before actually.

dmex has written a number of things....and has one in development right now....

 

[Chappy]

It has already been discussed before actually.

Yah, I thought that would already have been discussed by now

dmex has written a number of things....and has one in development right now

Yep, good stuff too! That's why I figured we'd have had a forum for that already. We have a number of coders on the site and it may encourage some to work on new ideas.
Man...I'm having a bit of trouble getting used to this new KB..nice board but a bit different from what I've been using the last 4 years. It's amazing how some small changes can cause sausage fingers...arrghh!