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this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Alternate data streams look like normal files but with an appended identifier.
For example test.txt:stream1 is an alternate data stream of test.txt. Move or copy the file and the ADS goes with it.
They can be created like other files (“echo > test.txt:stream1”)
You can see them with “dir /r” at the command line.
You can even have an alternate data stream with no corresponding file. In my opinion this is what thumbs.db should have been.
you are shitting me, that's so cool. This command only works for NTFS?
It works, and yes only on NTFS… but many applications may not be able to open these “files”.
It’s actually sort of a weird historical thing, goes back to the roots of Windows NT in VMS and also compatibility with Mac OS (classic) and its “resource forks”
OMG you're taking me back to ResEdit
Back 20+ years ago I used alternate data streams to his my collection of files (the ones you find online as a teenager) behind a text file. You can shove anything you want (I think) in them, even including extensions to make sure it opened in the right program (i.e. test.txt:malware.msi).