About File Management
The following topics contain more information about file management.
In this section
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| File System Functionality Comparison |
Tables that list functionality and feature support comparisons for the four main Windows file systems, NTFS, exFAT, UDF, and FAT32. |
| Files and Clusters |
A file is a unit of data in the file system that a user can access and manage. |
| Creating, Deleting, and Maintaining Files |
Functions to use to create, delete, and maintain files. |
| Obtaining and Setting File Information |
Functions to use to get and set file information. |
| Reading From and Writing to Files |
An application reads from and writes to a file by using the ReadFile, ReadFileEx, WriteFile, and WriteFileEx functions. |
| File and Directory Linking |
There are two types of links supported in the NTFS file system: hard links and junctions. |
| Block Cloning |
A block clone operation instructs the file system to copy a range of file bytes on behalf of an application. |
| File Compression and Decompression |
The NTFS file system uses Lempel-Ziv compression, which is a lossless compression algorithm. |
| File Encryption |
The Encrypted File System (EFS) provides cryptographic protection of individual files on NTFS file system volumes by using a public-key system. |
| File Security and Access Rights |
Because files are securable objects, access to them is regulated by the access-control model that governs access to all other securable objects in Windows. |
| Input and Output (I/O) |
Windows provides the ability to perform input and output (I/O) operations on storage components located on local and remote computers. |
| Sparse Files |
File compression of files that contain mostly zeros makes efficient use of disk space. |
| Symbolic Links |
A symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target. |