This will be TL:DR for most but if anybody does, feedback appreciated!
I've long wanted to be able to assign many user-defined properties and values to my files, and then find them on the basis of these property values. When I look at the directory names and file names I use, I realize that they are really user-defined properties and values, and these could be stored and searched in a much better way.
But as of yet, there's no satisfactory place to put these properties and values, no easy method to put them there, and no very easy method to search based on these property:value pairs. (Everything is the closest thing to it, by far.)
Consider these possibilities for locations for the properties and values:
Primary data streams - apps aren't prepared to deal with or preserve such "foreign" data in their data files.
Alternate data streams - there's no standard and efficient way to put user-defined properties and values in ADS. Plus, alternate data streams are preserved only in NTFS to NTFS transfers - they are not preserved when a file is copied to a non-NTFS filesystem, sent via email, through a cloud service, or backed up to a NAS.
Sidecar files - for example, for every tagged file, Tagspaces can put a file containing that file's tags in a hidden sidecar folder. The user would have to copy the sidecar tags file along with the data file, but it at least the tags would not be LOST as in the case of alternate data streams. For example, the sidecar file could be copied to a NAS along with the data file. From what I can see so far, Tagspaces "tags" are not property-value pairs I could put in an Everything column.
Path and File Names - "Properties" and values can be shoehorned into directory names and file names. With a registry modification, a group policy, and a "manifest", the Windows API can support pathnames up to 32,767 or thereabouts. But still, each directory or folder name in the path must be less than 256 (?) characters long. And, more importantly, the Windows Shell does not support paths > 256 characters. For example, the standard File Open and File Save As dialogs can't handle paths > 256 characters. If the Windows Shell and other apps would support long paths adequately, I might assign properties and values by putting them into long paths as follows; C:\property name\value\property name\value\property name\value\property name\value\ and so on for as many properties and values as I like. It wouldn't really matter what order I placed the properties and values, Everything could find them! Everything makes it fairly easy to extract such "embedded" properties and values and put them into their own column where they could be sorted. And, I could use Everything's Advanced Rename as a way to change these embedded properties and values.
I've long wanted to be able to assign many user-defined properties and values to my files, and then find them on the basis of these property values. When I look at the directory names and file names I use, I realize that they are really user-defined properties and values, and these could be stored and searched in a much better way.
But as of yet, there's no satisfactory place to put these properties and values, no easy method to put them there, and no very easy method to search based on these property:value pairs. (Everything is the closest thing to it, by far.)
Consider these possibilities for locations for the properties and values:
Primary data streams - apps aren't prepared to deal with or preserve such "foreign" data in their data files.
Alternate data streams - there's no standard and efficient way to put user-defined properties and values in ADS. Plus, alternate data streams are preserved only in NTFS to NTFS transfers - they are not preserved when a file is copied to a non-NTFS filesystem, sent via email, through a cloud service, or backed up to a NAS.
Sidecar files - for example, for every tagged file, Tagspaces can put a file containing that file's tags in a hidden sidecar folder. The user would have to copy the sidecar tags file along with the data file, but it at least the tags would not be LOST as in the case of alternate data streams. For example, the sidecar file could be copied to a NAS along with the data file. From what I can see so far, Tagspaces "tags" are not property-value pairs I could put in an Everything column.
Path and File Names - "Properties" and values can be shoehorned into directory names and file names. With a registry modification, a group policy, and a "manifest", the Windows API can support pathnames up to 32,767 or thereabouts. But still, each directory or folder name in the path must be less than 256 (?) characters long. And, more importantly, the Windows Shell does not support paths > 256 characters. For example, the standard File Open and File Save As dialogs can't handle paths > 256 characters. If the Windows Shell and other apps would support long paths adequately, I might assign properties and values by putting them into long paths as follows; C:\property name\value\property name\value\property name\value\property name\value\ and so on for as many properties and values as I like. It wouldn't really matter what order I placed the properties and values, Everything could find them! Everything makes it fairly easy to extract such "embedded" properties and values and put them into their own column where they could be sorted. And, I could use Everything's Advanced Rename as a way to change these embedded properties and values.
Statistics: Posted by jimspoon — Wed Aug 07, 2024 5:59 am