The free software NTFS Permissions Tool simplifies the modification of file permissions greatly. The program displays permissions of files and folders that you drag into its interface in a comfortable easy manner. Even better, controls to modify permissions are directly available on that screen.

The tool lists the path and type of the object, permissions, accounts and the current owner of each item. Both the account and owner can be changed by selecting a different from the pulldown menu.

Permissions can be set to allow, read only or deny in the main interface.

A double-click on a file or folder brings up the item’s advanced permission settings with possibilities to change detailed permissions. This menu resembles the security menu when you change security permissions in Windows Explorer.

You can allow and deny specific access rights, from reading attributes to writing data or creating files. Actions can be applied to the selected object, or in case it is a folder to subfolders and files as well.

It is possible to create permission backups which may be handy for restoration purposes later on, or to run the same set of permission changes on an identical system.

You can use the file menu to add folders or files, in case you do not like to work with drag and drop operations. The Security menu offers advanced editing controls, for instance to copy permissions or security settings.

NTFS Permissions Tools is a handy tool for users who either need to change permissions on a regular basis, or users who need to change a lot of permissions and security changes once. The main advantage over Window’s built-in permission and security tool is accessibility and ease of use. It takes less time to change permissions and security settings.

The program can be downloaded from the developer website. I suggest you use this download host to download the file. Make sure you verify the file at a service like Virustotal.com before you run it on your system. The program itself is offered as a 32-bit and 64-bit version. It looks like a portable software on first glance but may use the Microsoft .NET Framework. (via)

That’s not a problem unless the disk that you want to format is larger than 32 Gigabytes. If you open the formatting options in Windows for such a drive, you will notice that only NTFS is selectable from the file system pulldown menu.

That’s because of an artificial limit of 32 Gigabytes. Fat32 is only selectable in the graphical user interface if the disk is not larger than 32 Gigabytes. With today’s hard drives, that’s seldom the case. You could partition the drive first to create a partition of 32 Gigabytes or less, but that could lead to other compatibility issues.

A few solutions are available to format those drives to Fat32. The command line tool format does not have the same restrictions as the gui. Your first option is therefor to format the drive from the command line.

Use the hotkey Windows-r to bring up the run box. Type cmd and hit enter. Now enter the following command to format a selected drive to Fat32. A: refers to the drive letter, make sure you change it to the correct drive. The /q parameter enables quick format, if you like a normal format instead remove it from the command.

format /FS:FAT32 /q A:

Working with the command line may not be to everyone’s liking. If you prefer a graphical user interface you can download the freeware Fat32Formatter which gives you similar options.

The program is portable which means you can run it right after you have unpacked it to a local drive. You select the drive that you want to format from the physical drive pulldown menu at the top. Information get populated automatically by the software on each selection.

All partitions of the drive are displayed, and you need to select the partition that you want to format. This step is mandatory even if there is only one partition. Additional information are displayed after selection, including the used and empty space on the drive.

You can specify a size and volume label for the newly formatted partition. Users who are in a hurry can enable quick format to speed up the formatting. A click on start formats the drive.

Several hard drive manufacturers are offering tools for their hard drives to format hard drives larger than 32 Gigabytes to Fat32. You may want to check their homepages to find those tools. Most free and commercial partitioning tools can do that as well.

For the user in question, the files and folders appear as any other files on the system, with the exception that they are are highlighted in green.

Here are some examples of where it may make sense to use EFS encryption:

• Protecting your Dropbox configuration files
• Protecting your KeePass database, or another database
• Protecting files that you do not want anyone else to open, ever

EFS Support

The following versions and editions of Windows support EFS:

• Windows 2000, XP Professional
• Windows Server (all)
• Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, Ultimate
• Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate

Encrypting Data With EFS

You can encrypt data in Windows Explorer. Select one or multiple files and folders in Windows Explorer, right-click the selection afterwards and select Properties from the context menu.

Click on Advanced and locate Encrypt contents to secure data on the new window. If you have selected at least one folder, you will be asked if you only want to encrypt the root files of that folder, or files in sub-folders as well.

The files and folder in question are then displayed in green in Windows Explorer. Congratulations, you have just encrypted your first files or folders with EFS.

You can work with the files and folders normally as long as you are logged into the right user account. Please note that even system administrators cannot access the encrypted files.

Decrypting Data With The Encrypting File System

The time may come where you may want to decrypt the data, for instance before moving the files to a new computer system. This is done by repeating the exact same process.

Select the files and folders, right-click on them afterwards and select Properties. Click on the Advanced button and remove the checkmark from Encrypt contents to secure data.

EFS Backup

The encryption is directly linked to the account and password, which means that any change to the password or account has the effect that the files cannot be decrypted anymore. This can be problematic, considering that you may forget your account password, which would then make all encrypted files inaccessible.

Backup is the solution in this case. Microsoft Windows generates a certificate after you have used EFS for the first time. You can backup the certificate to restore file access even if the account or operating system changes.

Use Windows-r to bring up the run command box. Type certmgr.msc in the box and hit enter. This opens the Windows Certificate Manager. Go to Personal > Certificates under Current User. You should see a certificate for your user account.

Right-click that entry and select All Tasks -> Exports from the context menu.

This launches the Certificate Export Wizard. Click Next on the start screen, and switch to Yes, export the private key on the next screen.

Do not change the default settings on the Export File Format screen, just select Next.

You are now asked to enter a password which will be used to protect the private key from third party access. Someone with access to the key and the right password could import the certificate on another system to gain access to the encrypted files on your system.

You need to select a location and file name for the private key in the last step. You are free to choose any filename and location you want, for instance on a True Crypt or Bitlocker volume or container.

Imports of certificates do not take that long fortunately. Just double-click the file that you have created. This will prompt for the password that you have selected during creation. If the password is correct, the certificate will be imported, after which it becomes active and the encrypted files and folders readable.

This is for instance handy if you want to access your encrypted files on multiple computer systems.

Words of Caution

It is important to backup the certificate, as this is your only option to re-gain access to the encrypted files should you forget your password, re-install Windows or accidentally delete the user account used to encrypt the files. It is essential to select a secure backup certificate password, to protect the certificate from unauthorized users.

I for one suggest to store the backup of the certificate on encrypted storage space for additional security.

It displays a list of available partitions and drives on startup, and offers to load disk images in the Advanced Tab. Once a drive has been selected it displays the available partitions, and then detailed information about the partition and data contained.

ntfswalker

The MFT (master file table) records are displayed on the left sidebar. Here it is possible to select a record to display information about it on the right content side. The content side is divided into the tabs file information, preview and hex data.

File information list all available information about the select file, from creation and modification dates to file attributes, allocated size on the partition, flags and the name namespace.

Preview displays a preview of the selected file if available. This is largely only possible if it is an image or contains textual data. Hex data finally displays the file in hex code.

ntfs file recovery

Existing files are displayed with a file icon in front of their row, while files that have been deleted with a red X. Those files may still be recoverable, especially if the size information is greater than 0 and a name is still displayed for the file.

A right-click on those files, and the selection of Save selected files in the context menu, restores the file on a selected storage device that is currently connected to the computer system.

The major advantage of NTFSWalker over comparable solutions is that it uses its own NTFS driver, which means it runs independent from the operating system in this regard.

NTFSWalker is a free software that is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. The portable application is available for download at the developer’s website.

The manual task can best be used to compress specific files and folders on the system. The software Smart NTFS Compress automates the task, by scanning for files on the system that can be compressed.

The developer is not offering explanations on how the program works, but it seems to be only compressing files that yield a large enough storage space gain.

smart drive compress

The unregistered version of the program offers limited functionality. Only the drive letter and maximum file size in Megabyte can be configured in the program. A click on Smart Compress starts the scan of the selected drive.

Smart Compress will automatically compress files on the hard drive, and display statistics in the end about the operation.

The only problem that some users may have with the program is the inability to protect folders or files from being scanned by it. It would for instance make sense to protect the Windows directory from the scan, to avoid files being compressed in that directory.

Smart Drive Compress is available for download at the developer website.

Making use of this file compression can reduce the storage requirements of files a lot. The highest gains are achieved by compressing formerly uncompressed files, like text documents, emails or executables. The gain is insignificant for files that are already compressed, including jpg photos, mp3 music files, or avi movies.

NTFS Compression in a nutshell:

• NTFS compression is only available on volumes that use the NTFS file system
• It can be used to compress files and folders
• Files are decompressed automatically, and they appear as before in Windows.
• By default, NTFS compressed files and folders use different colors to distinguish them from standard files and folders./li>
• Users may experience a performance decrease when working with compressed files, as Windows needs to decompress them first before they can be used. This is usually not a big issue on modern PC systems.

How To Compress Folders and Files

The option to compress files or folders in Windows is directly available in Windows Explorer. To compress a file or folder perform the following tasks:

• Right-click the files or folders that need to be compressed and select Properties from the context menu. Take notice of the size on disk value, which lists the storage space requirements of the selected folders and files on the disk.
• Click on the Advanced button in the General tab, this opens an Advanced Attributes window.
• Select Compress contents to save disk space, click OK on the previous window, and then select to apply the changes either to the selected file or folder only, or all subfolders, and files as well.

compress contents save disk pace

The properties window stays open if Apply was selected to complete the compression. The size on disk value will now show the compressed size on the disk. You may notice that this can be considerably less depending on the files selected.

Folders and files can be uncompressed the same way. The only different is that the checkmark in third step of the process needs to be removed.

Please note that it is not advised to compress files and folders that are part of performance intensive tasks. These tasks include gaming, large files that need to be saved and loaded many times throughout the day or files that are used by the operating system.

Compression works best for files that are not used a lot, that are uncompressed and not part of performance intensive tasks. Office documents for instance are perfect for compression.

Windows 7 automatically displays compressed folders in different colors. Other operating systems may not, to change that perform the following operation:

1. Double-click Folder Options in Control Panel.
2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
3. Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.
4. On the View tab, click to select the Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color check box.

Have you experience with NTFS compression? Share it with us in the comments.

The memory usage of the buffers can be increased from an elevated command line prompt or the Windows Registry.

It in theory speeds up situations with many file operations, useful in every situation with an increased amount of read write operations.

Changing the setting with increase the paged and non-paged memory usage of the buffers which indicates that this tweak should only be used if enough spare system memory is available on the PC.

Microsoft TechNet offers the following description of the memoryusage value:

Configures the internal cache levels of NTFS paged pool and NTFS non-paged pool memory. Set to 1 or 2. When set to 1 (the default), NTFS uses the default amount of paged pool memory. When set to 2, NTFS increases the size of its lookaside lists and memory thresholds. A lookaside list is a pool of fixed-size kernel memory buffers that the kernel and device drivers create as private memory caches for file system operations, such as reading a file.

Increasing Memory Usage via the command line

An elevated command prompt is required for this operation. Click start, then All Programs, locate Accessories, right-click Command Prompt in the listing and select to Run As Administrator.

elevated command prompt

Issue the following command to increase the limit of paged pool memory:

fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2

fsutil memoryusage

Windows will return the new value in the same command prompt.

Windows users who would like to restore the old setting can issue the following command instead:

fsutil behavior set memoryusage 1

Increasing Memory Usage via the Windows Registry:

Open the Windows Registry Editor by either clicking on Start again and typing in regedit in the run box or by pressing Windows-R and typing in regedit in the opening run dialog window.

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Locate the entry NtfsMemoryUsage in the right window. Three possible values can be set:

• Not Set: 0
• Default: 1
• Increased: 2

registry memory usage

A restart of the computer system is required before the change will take effect, regardless whether it has been applied to the Registry or the command line.

It is probably a good idea to test the system in real-life situations after the restart to see if the speed gains are noticeable and verify that it continues to run stable.

This setting should be available in all Windows NT based systems. We have verified that it is available in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and the Windows Server line. Would be nice if Windows XP users could see if it is also available in that operating system.

(inspiration for this article taken from WebTlk)

The way Microsoft has implemented file compression in the operating system makes it difficulty to manage. That’s where the free software NTFS Ratio steps in.

NTFS Ratio can be used to analyse a folder structure on a hard drive that has been formatted with the NTFS file system. The program displays all files and folders in that structure as well as their compression status and ratio. The application will also display total stats for all files and folder in the file structure.

The list can be printed or copied to the clipboard. The reporting feature can be interesting for users who want to analyse the file compression on their computer system, especially its effectiveness. A right-click on a folder or file provides a Windows Explorer like context menu with options to compress and decompress folders.

The results of these actions are directly displayed in the program’s interface. NTFS Ratio is a niche software for users who use NTFS file compression. The program is compatible with most Windows operating systems including Windows 7. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website (German but should not pose a problem for non-German speakers).

The main advantages of exFAT in comparison to FAT32 are the removal of the 4 GB file size limit and support for hard drives with large capacities (recommended maximum sizes for both are 512 TB). The exFAT file system driver will add the option to format removable media with the exFAT file system to take advantage of it. The file system is using a smaller disk space overhead than the NTFS file system. Users reported a disk space overhead of only 96 Kilobytes on a 4 Gigabyte flash drive after formattting it with the exFAT file system. The NTFS file system used more than 47 Megabytes of space for overhead.

Interested users can download the exFAT file system driver update directly from Microsoft to add exFAT file system support to their operating system.

The exFAT file system driver incorporates the following advanced structures to improve performance:

* A cluster bitmap for fast allocation
* A per-file contiguous bit for fast file access
* Better contiguous on-disk layout (useful for recording movies)
* Support for Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) time stamps

The exFAT file system driver is designed for extensibility to enable the file system to keep pace with innovations in storage and changes in usage and to enable OEMs and ISVs to add extensions seamlessly. Specifically, exFAT adds the following features:

* Adds template-based metadata structures to enable custom extensions
* Enables implementations to persist these extensions without having to know their format

The exFAT file system driver adds increased compatibility with flash media. This includes the following capabilities:

* Alignment of file system metadata on optimal write boundaries of the device
* Alignment of the cluster heap on optimal write boundaries of the device

The prerequisites for the update are an installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3.

Users installing the software need to have administrator rights to do so and should note that only NTFS drives support the creation which means that it cannot be used on partitions formatted with FAT file systems. It should also be noted that Link Shell Extension is compatible with 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The type of link that is created depends on the source that is picked by the user. Picking files will create hardlinks, folders will create junctions and a partition will create a volume mountpoint. The benefit of creating that file system is that files and folders can be accessed in multiple places instead of just the source location.

In addition to the three link types specified above the Windows Vista version of Link Shell Extension supports the creation of Symbolic Links which have been introduced in the operating system.

The creation of remote links within SMB mapped network NTFS drives is supported by the software program as well. The easiest way to get an overview of the capabilities of Link Shell Extension is to visit the homepage which lists all supported modes and functions.

The program divides the information into four panes and a header area that provides access to a quick partition browser and program help. The other panes are displaying the directory structure, the files and folders in the currently active directory including the amount of streams of each file and folder, detailed information about each stream and a hex viewer that is displaying the contents of each stream.

The default stream is the one that gets executed when the user (double-)clicks on the file. The main advantage of Stream Explorer is that it displays all information in one window.

Basically anything can be added to an existing file (and directory) which brings up an interesting method of hiding important data on the system. Say you want to keep your passwords on the computer but do not want to use a text document to have them in the open. Using Alternate Data Streams to hide them from prying eyes could be a relative secure method of storing the password list on the computer.

They are detectable if the right software is being used. Windows Vista users can also use the dir *.txt /R which is further explained at Bart De Smet’s on-line blog.

To add textual information to any file in Windows you could use the command notepad filename:name for example notepad image.jpg:secret. This would open up Notepad and a blank text file at the first run. Any text that is added and saved during that session will the shown if the user opens the text document with the same command at a later time.

Executable files or other binary files can be added with the type command like this: type c:\text.exe > hello.txt:text.exe which can be executed with the start command start .\hello.txt:text.exe.

By default USB devices are optimized for quick removal in Windows XP. If you want to format your USB device as NTFS you need to change that to optimize them for performance. This has however direct impact on how you remove the device from your system. You need to remove it safely if you really changed that option otherwise severe data loss might occur.

I don’t want to go deeper into the topic but I guess it does not make sense to format your USB device as NTFS considering the prospect of data loss if you miss to plug it off safely. Still it`s good to know I think.

Creating NTFS Alternate Data Streams is not complicated at all. You can use the “type” command to do that. To fork the file virus.exe into calc.exe you would use the command type virus.exe > calc.exe:virus:exe if they are in the same directory. Add the path if they are not. The size of the calculator does not change, the only indicator is that the file changed stamp is altered.

But executing those files must be harder, right ? Wrong again. To execute virus.exe you use the command “start”, in our example it would be start calc.exe:virus:exe.

A software like Stream Explorer can find those NTFS Alternate Data Streams on your hard drive. An alternative is List Alternate Data Streams

If it states Fat32 you should consider changing this to NTFS. Let me explain why it might be advantageous to do that. Generally speaking one could say that NTFS improves performance, reliability (Fat32 are more susceptible to disk errors), security and disk space usage if you have been using FAT32 file systems previously.

There are some exceptions to this rule which should be noted here. First, if the size of your hard drive is below 8 Gigabytes Fat32 might be the better choice disk space wise. It is definitely the better choice if you have a dual boot system with an older Microsoft operating system such as Windows 98.

It is possible to convert a FAT32 to NTFS without data loss. I would still advise to make backups of the important data before starting the conversion in case something goes wrong. (Power failure anyone ?) Please note that this is a one way process, you can’t convert the file system back to FAT32 easily.

Press Windows R, write cmd and hit enter. You only need to write down one command: convert c: /fs:ntfs where c: is the drive that you want to convert. Just change c to whatever drive you want to convert. The conversion will start after rebooting the machine. All data on that drive will still be available after the conversion from FAT32 to NTFS.

If you are not using a program that needs the timestamp you can easily edit the registry key in vista to speed up your system. Hit Windows + R, type regedit and press enter.  Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Right-click the key NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the value of it to 1. While you are there you could also disable the creation of files in Dos format (8+3) by altering the value of the key NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1 as well.