- .DS Store
.DS_Store (Desktop Services Store)cite web | url=http://arno.org/blog/2006/09/on-origins-of-dsstore.html | title= On the origins of .DS_Store | date=
September 30 2006 | author=Arno Gourdol | work=arno.org | accessdate = 2006-10-01] is a hidden file created byApple Inc. 'sMac OS X operating system to store custom attributes of a folder such as the position of icons or the choice of a background image. [cite web | url=http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_16831 | title= Removing .DS_Store files on Macintosh OS X? | author=Adobe | work=adobe.com | date=February 24 2003 | accessdate = 2006-09-29] By default, the Mac OS X Finder will create a .DS_Store file in every folder that it accesses, even folders on remote systems (for example, folders shared over a SMB or AFP connection) and even if the user has only customized the appearance of the folder by moving its Finder window. [cite web | url=http://rixstep.com/1/20030521,00.shtml | title=.DS_Store | date=May 21 2003 | author=Rixstep | work=rixstep.com | accessdate = 2006-09-29] This is in contrast to the preexisting system for the same purpose used in previous versions of the Finder, which would merely place a number of invisible files at the root of the volume being accessed (even on alienfile system s), always storing the settings andmetadata for all of the folders in the entire volume within this single set of files.After complaints from users about these files being created on remote systems, Apple posted an article on its support site detailing how to disable the creation of remote .DS_Store files over network connections. [cite web | url=http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301711 | title=Mac OS X 10.4: How to prevent .DS_Store file creation over network connections | author=Apple Computer | work=www.apple.com/support/ | date=
May 24 2005 | accessdate = 2006-09-29]Note that suppressing the creation of .DS_Store files is only possible on network drives such as
file server s – they will still always be created on local drives, includingflash drive s or anything that appears as a flash drive. The creation of .DS_Store and related files on flash-like drives is known to cause problems with some embedded devices that do not expect those files, including several popular models of digital photo frames.Although these files were initially primarily used by the Finder they were envisioned as a more general purpose store of metadata about the display options of folders such as icon position and view settings. For example, since Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", .DS_Store files contain the Spotlight Comments of all the folder's files.
ee also
*Thumbs.db – Windows thumbnail cache
References
External links
* [http://wiki.mozilla.org/DS_Store_File_Format A reverse-engineered description of the file format]
* [http://zipmacfilesforpc.gotoes.org/What_Is_DS_Store.htm Learn More about .DS_Store]
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