NTFS Registry Updates

Click on any underlined word to see its meaning. Words with ** before and after, are downloadable links. 

 

The Problem

The NTFS which we talked about earlier is the recommended file system because of its advantages in terms of reliability and security and because it is required for large hard drive sizes. As you know there is always a down side to things. By default, it keeps two names for files that are in your computer, to allow computers running older operating systems like Microsoft Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS to read these files. The file names have to be in a particular format called 8dot3, which is 8 characters (maximum) followed by a period and a 3 character extension. This is the reason why NTFS has a second set of file names. It takes extra time to create and access files in NTFS if the system is required to create two names for each file.

 

 

The Solution

If you have none of these older machines accessing your computer, then you can disable this feature and save some valuable resources. In addition, every time Windows XP accesses a directory on an NTFS drive, it updates that directory and every subdirectory with a time stamp to indicate the date of access. In folders with a lot of subdirectories, this can add considerable processing load to whatever your computer is doing. Most of us do not have much use for this feature, other than an occasional search for a file by last date accessed.

 

The Method

To disable the creation of 8dot3 file names, as well as the last accessed time being updated, follow the steps below.

 

1. **Download this file**. When the window gives you the option to Open/Save, choose Open, by Left Clicking.
2. You will see a screen a similar to the one shown below. Click Yes.