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Documentation NTFS Description vs. Enable Descriptions

Hello,

Is there a recommendation on using NTFS Description vs the old descript.ion file? Is there any issues to using both simultaneously? Or a reason why you wouldn't turn on both options in TC? And if both are enabled to they mirror each other (i.e. editing a file using describe will also edit the NTFS stream?) TIA!
 
This is what Bing Chat says;
According to a forum post1, NTFS Description and descript.ion file are two different ways of storing file descriptions on NTFS file systems. NTFS Description uses streams that are attached to each file or directory, while descript.ion file is a text file that contains one line for each file or directory in the same folder.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of using either method. For example, NTFS Description can store multiple comments with different names for each file or directory2, but it may not work well on network drives3. Descript.ion file can be easily edited with any text editor, but it may not support Unicode characters or long filenames.

There is no reason why you cannot use both methods simultaneously, as long as you do not edit the same description with both methods at the same time. However, they do not mirror each other automatically, so you may need to use a tool like TCMDescr.exe2 to synchronize them.

Joe

Ref: Documentation - NTFS Description vs. Enable Descriptions
Ref: NTFS Descriptions (content plugin) - Total Commander
Ref: NTFS Descriptions not working
Ref: NTFS descriptions?
 
A test suggests that you can't use both. I tried this setup.

1677857874971.png


If you check the first box you simply get descriptions. Where they go depends on whether the second box is checked ... unchecked uses DESCRIPT.ION, checked uses NTFS descriptions.

A question: The help fir DIR says

Depending on the options chosen, you can display the file name, attributes, and size; the time and date of the last change to the file; the file description; and the file's compression ratio.

How do you get DIR to display descriptions?
 
DIR /Z

if my memory is correct.

Joe
 
If you check the first box you simply get descriptions. Where they go depends on whether the second box is checked ... unchecked uses DESCRIPT.ION, checked uses NTFS descriptions.

Thank you for that information! I think I will stick with the old style DESCRIPT.ION because I mostly use th function with old 8.3 files.
 

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