Someone recently as me a question as to why some files appear in either a blue or green colour when they viewed their files in Window Explorer. They were wondering if there was a problem with those files and what should they do about it.
I assured them that there was no problem with their files, and that it was perfectly normal to see some files in another colour other than black.
Colourful Windows Explorer
The NTFS file system allows you to easily compress or encrypt entire directories or files. Compressing a file or directory allows you to save space on your hard disk, albeit, with a slight performance hit. Windows compresses the hotfix directories found in your Windows root directory.
If you want to keep people from viewing certain files on your computer, then you can encrypt those files so that only you can access them.
| Feature | Colour |
|---|---|
| Compression | Blue |
| Encryption | Green |
How to Turn Off the Colouring
If you prefer not to use colors to denote a compress or encrypted file, then you can easily turn it off. To do this, use these steps:
- Open Windows Explorer, and then click “Tools->Folder Options”.
- Click the “View” tab.
- Scroll down and uncheck “Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color
- Click the “Apply” button.
- Click the “Apply to All Folders” button.
- Click “OK” to close the dialog.
Now all your compress or encrypted files and directories will be displayed in their default color.
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on October 12, 2010 at 1:00 am
I call myself a techie geek but I never know that files are colored on Windows Explorer! (I never use the compression or encryption feature before)
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on October 12, 2010 at 8:32 am
I new about the compression as I used to use that feature a few years ago when I didn’t have as much hard drive space. The encryption I didn’t learn about until I was in a multi-user environment, and the personal folders were encrypted.
on September 27, 2011 at 5:33 am
So I see. Sometimes I’m wondering why this file is different coloured, and the other one also different.
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