File Attributes

Article
08/19/2010

File attributes are metadata values stored by the file system on disk and are used by the system and are available to developers via various file I/O APIs. For a list of related APIs and topics, see the See Also section.

The following table lists file attribute constant names and values with descriptions.

Name	Value(Dec)	Value(Hex)	Description
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE	32	0x0020	A file or directory that is an archive file or directory. Applications typically use this attribute to mark files for backup or removal.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_COMPRESSED	2048	0x0800	A file or directory that is compressed. For a file, all of the data in the file is compressed. For a directory, compression is the default for newly created files and subdirectories.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DEVICE	64	0x0040	This value is reserved for system use.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY	16	0x0010	The handle that identifies a directory.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ENCRYPTED	16384	0x4000	A file or directory that is encrypted. For a file, all data streams in the file are encrypted. For a directory, encryption is the default for newly created files and subdirectories.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN	2	0x0002	The file or directory is hidden. It is not included in an ordinary directory listing.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL	128	0x0080	A file that does not have other attributes set. This attribute is valid only when used alone.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NOT_CONTENT_INDEXED	8192	0x2000	The file or directory is not to be indexed by the content indexing service.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_OFFLINE	4096	0x1000	The data of a file is not available immediately. This attribute indicates that the file data is physically moved to offline storage. This attribute is used by Remote Storage, which is the hierarchical storage management software. Applications should not arbitrarily change this attribute.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY	1	0x0001	A file that is read-only. Applications can read the file, but cannot write to it or delete it. This attribute is not honored on directories. For more information, see "You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, or in Windows Vista".
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT	1024	0x0400	A file or directory that has an associated reparse point, or a file that is a symbolic link.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SPARSE_FILE	512	0x0200	A file that is a sparse file.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM	4	0x0004	A file or directory that the operating system uses a part of, or uses exclusively.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY	256	0x0100	A file that is being used for temporary storage. File systems avoid writing data back to mass storage if sufficient cache memory is available, because typically, an application deletes a temporary file after the handle is closed. In that scenario, the system can entirely avoid writing the data. Otherwise, the data is written after the handle is closed.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_VIRTUAL	65536	0x10000	This value is reserved for system use.