Desktop.ini: What is it, what can it be used for and what properties does it support?
No doubt you've come across the mysterious 'desktop.ini' file before - especially if you often have hidden files set to show. But what exactly is this file? How can a seemingly empty folder end up with this file? What does it even do? Well, read on to find the answers to all those questions! What is desktop.ini? Desktop.ini is a basic text file that can often be found hidden in folders. Desktop.ini actually stores various properties and information about its parent folder for use by file browsers when displaying the folder. There are various things you can change about how the folder looks by using Desktop.ini, such as setting a ToolTip to display when the user mouses-over the folder or setting custom text to display when the folder is empty. Another use is to specify string resources to use for files in the folder - this allows for localisation, meaning that file names can appear different depending on your system's default language. Another example is in our app QPad