Windows Explorer Folder name change not found by FFS comparison when the folder has a custom Icon assigned to it

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Posts: 4
Joined: 17 Feb 2018

KeithSlarke

I have a problem that when I change a folder Icon to a picture using a .ico file stored in the same folder, that when FFS does a comparison of a folder that has had its name changed it is not picked up and there it is not backed up.

I have changed other folders in the same directory that have not had the icon changed and they are still working OK. It is just folders where the windows folder Icon has changed.

I am running the latest version of FFS Version 9.8.
Posts: 4
Joined: 17 Feb 2018

KeithSlarke

I have done more research in to this and the problem is that at the DOS level the filename has not changed

For Example
folder named "test" created in windows explorer and the folder ICON is now customised
so it has a desktop.ini file.

At the dos prompt do a "dir" on the folder and you see a folder called "test"

Change the folder to "test" to "testXYZ" in explorer and the name is changed to testXYZ and the desktop.ini file reflects this change.
however, at the DOS prompt doing the same folder directory "DIR" will show the folder name has not changed it is still "test"
It has not changed.

So anyone that is using custom folder Icons for there folders will not see these folder name changes in freefilesync and therefore the folder will not be backed up.

This could I think be fixed by FFS checking for the desktop.ini file which contains the new file name which will be different to the dos folder name and there for FFS will see that the folder has changed and back it up as normal.

Keith
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Posts: 23
Joined: 12 May 2012

NightOwl

I tried to recreate your problem (make dir, set custom icon stored in desktop.ini, and finally change the name), but when checking via dos-cmd, the name is correctly changed to the new name. I tested under win 7 sp1 64-bit.
What did you mean by "desktop.ini reflects this change"? Here desktop.ini only holds the icon, not the file name for normal dir.'s created by the user. Only the "translated" win-dir's have a "LocalizedResourceName" (file name) entry in destop.ini, hope this may help a bit to isolate the problem.
Posts: 4
Joined: 17 Feb 2018

KeithSlarke

That is very interesting and I have also retested using DOS and it is definitely not changing the DOS file name and in fact FFS only sees the desktop.ini file change when the directory is changed using explorer.

So I am guessing this must be windows version problem I am using windows 7 64bit what are you using?
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Posts: 23
Joined: 12 May 2012

NightOwl

- same version : win 7 - 64 bit - WITH SP1
- what's in your desktop.ini after changing the file-name? (normally nothing more than the icon)
- what happens when you delete desktop.ini? (of course the icon is removed, but what happens to the file-name)
- success!
Posts: 4
Joined: 17 Feb 2018

KeithSlarke

your question
- what's in your desktop.ini after changing the file-name? (normally nothing more than the icon)

So I have a file called "test" and I change it in windows explorer to "test ABC"

The new file name is stated in desktop.ini located in the folder directory.

From desktop.ini
[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=test ABC
IconResource=default.ico
IconFile=default.ico
IconIndex=0

but the DOS file name is still "test" and windows explorer displays the file as "test ABC"

I presume you are going to the windows command prompt and to same folder to do a "DIR" command

FFS compare only sees the .ini file as changing


your second question
- what happens when you delete desktop.ini? (of course the icon is removed, but what happens to the file-name)

If I delete the desktop.ini file the folder name in explorer reverts to "test" the DOS name remains the same.
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Posts: 23
Joined: 12 May 2012

NightOwl

interesting... so this we know already:

- first, FFS has nothing to do with it, it's a windows problem (as reflected in DOS, the "real" name did not change, and so FFS correctly only detects a change in desktop.ini and not in the dir. name)

- you get the entry "[.ShellClassInfo]>LocalizedResourceName=..." in your desktop.ini: normally this only occurs with SYSTEM files, not with normal user-created files (e.g. you can check this also -more or less the same- with dir.'s such as "programs", start menu items, favorites,...)

so -at least for testing- we may conclude that the system "sees" your dir. as a system dir. instead of a "normal" user dir., which maybe related to the permission settings of the dir., or the parent dir.'s; maybe it's best to create a test-dir in a "clean" location (not under "documents, users..., etc.), then (re-)check all the appropriate permissions (no "trusted installer", etc.) and test again

good luck