I have been reading about alternate data streams and I am kind of curious if any big applications for Windows actually uses this feature of NTFS.
I am also really curious as to whether or not traditional backup and archiving utilities back up this data and is able to be restored.
Alternate Data Streams in NTFS Applies to
* Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface, when used with:
o Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
o Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
o Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 5
o Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
o Microsoft Windows 2000 Standard Edition
o the operating system: Microsoft Windows XP
Very small ADS (Alternate Data Streams) are also added within Internet Explorer (and now also other browsers) to mark files that have been downloaded from external sites: *they may be unsafe to run locally and the local shell will require confirmation from the user before opening them. When the user indicates that he no longer wants this confirmation dialog, this ADS is simply dropped from the MFT entry for downloaded files.
Resource from Wikipedia
SQL Server 2012 and earlier users alternate data stream as part of the CHECKDB process:
SQL Server uses named streams as well as sparse files when running any of the DBCC CHECK statements such as everyone's favorite DBCC CHECKDB when these commands are run online.
E.g.
This meant that you couldn't put an SQL Server database on a ReFS volume, as ReFS didn't support Alternate Data Streams. Microsoft changed that SQL Server 2014.
Some other instances of people using alternate data streams.
foo.dat:Zone.Identifier: Internet Explorer mark of the webNorthwind.mdb:MSSQL_DBCC10: SQL Server 2012 and earlier checkdb temporary storagethumbs.db:encryptable: Windows Shell uses the stream name "encryptable" to store attributes relating to thumbnails in the thumbnails database.?Q30lsldxJoudresxAaaqpcawXc: Created by Indexing service on images
I use ADS (Alternate Data Streams) to annotate files that are otherwise difficult to document. For example, adding an "Annotations" ADS to MyBigExcelWorkbook.xlsm allows me to keep notes of changes and enhancements that I make. They are easy enough to edit:
C:>:: First create the ADS
C:>echo 2020-02-21 13:00 Creating Annotations > MyBigExcelWorkbool.xlsm:Annotations
C:>:: Now edit the annotations
C:>notepad MyBigExcelWorkbool.xlsm:Annotations
will do it for you, so will Wordpad. The ADS stream survives Excel saving changes in the workbook.
Caveat: some backup utilities will lose the ADS so make sure that you check that your backup and restore routine will preserve them ([https://www.2brightsparks.com/resources/articles/ntfs-alternate-data-stream-ads.html]).
The FileBot video renamer software and other programs may store the original filename and all episode / movie metadata in an NTFS Alternate Data Stream. See FileBotFAQ
