Friday, August 28, 2009

Get or set file\directory attributes using Powershell

This is just “reminder post” for me if I will need to use it in future…

I wanted to create hidden folder using Powershell – in fact, it’s not very hard:

$(MkDir “Martin Zugec”).Attributes = ‘Hidden’

.Attributes is FileAttributes enumeration, so you use same syntax when you want to create files. Below are available values:

Archive Applications use this attribute to mark file\folder for backup or removal
Compressed Is compressed
Device N/A – in future maybe ;) Looks promising :)
Directory “File is directory” :)
Encrypted Encrypted
Hidden Hidden
Normal If no other attributes are applied
NotContentIndexed Skip for indexing
Offline File\Folder is offline
ReadOnly File\Folder is read-only
ReparsePoint Contains reparse point. Reparse point is user data associated with this entry – one example where reparse points are used is when you mount folder into another.
SparseFile Sparse files are usually large files whose data are mostly zeros. To be honest, I never saw sparse file as far as I know – even fake huge files (FSUtil File CreateNew) are not sparse files.
System System file
Temporary If file is marked as temporary, file system will try to keep all the data in memory for quicker access instead of flushing data back to harddisk. Of course temporary file should be deleted as soon as possible if not needed ;)

If you want to change attribute of existing folder\file, it’s also very easy:

$(Get-Item “Martin Zugec”).Attributes = ‘Hidden’

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello!
Why do you use the $ at the beginning?
This is also possible: (MkDir “Martin Zugec”).Attributes = ‘Hidden’

I am a PS Beginner, has it a good cause to use the $?

Anonymous said...

only archive, hidden, normal, readonly, or system can be set this way.

القمر السعودى said...

صيانة افران بابها
صيانة افران بخميس مشيط
صيانة افران بجدة
شركة جلي بلاط و رخام بخميس مشيط