7zfm for adding / viewing alternate data streams
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2022 5:50 pm
Right now it seems that 7zfm.exe (7-zip file manager) is the best GUI option for adding and viewing Alternate Data Streams.
Highlight a file in 7zfm, then select File > Alternate Data Streams. Alt+F, A will do the trick. It can also be done from the right-click menu.
The pane will then display the streams in the file, or an empty pane if it doesn't have any streams yet. The file's streams are displayed just like files in a folder, except the columns aren't exactly the same.
To create a stream, click File > Create File, or just press Ctrl+N. In this streams pane, a stream is created, not a file.
To add text to the stream, click File > Edit, or just press F4. The stream opens in Notepad. Enter your text and then press Ctrl+S to save. The changed stream length is immediately reflected in the 7zfm pane.
Repeat to add or edit as many streams to the containing file as you like.
To navigate out of the streams back to the containing file, just press Backspace.
Now, what's the easiest way to go from a file in Everything and show it in the 7zfm pane? You can just right-click on the file in Everything, then select Copy Path to Clipboard from the Everything context menu. Then switch to 7zfm and paste it in the address bar.
It would be good if we could right-click in Everything and then use the 7-zip context menu option, but this does not provide a way to open a non-archive file in 7zfm. You can open a folder in 7zfm this way, but not a non-archive file. But I have set up OpenWithPlusPlus (https://github.com/stax76/OpenWithPlusPlus) to open up any file's parent folder in 7zfm, and once you do that, you can highlight the file in 7zfm and click File > ADS.
There is the annoyance that once you have the containing folder open in 7zfm, you have to find again the file you wanted to add streams to. I haven't found a way to do this automatically.
More ideas appreciated!
Highlight a file in 7zfm, then select File > Alternate Data Streams. Alt+F, A will do the trick. It can also be done from the right-click menu.
The pane will then display the streams in the file, or an empty pane if it doesn't have any streams yet. The file's streams are displayed just like files in a folder, except the columns aren't exactly the same.
To create a stream, click File > Create File, or just press Ctrl+N. In this streams pane, a stream is created, not a file.
To add text to the stream, click File > Edit, or just press F4. The stream opens in Notepad. Enter your text and then press Ctrl+S to save. The changed stream length is immediately reflected in the 7zfm pane.
Repeat to add or edit as many streams to the containing file as you like.
To navigate out of the streams back to the containing file, just press Backspace.
Now, what's the easiest way to go from a file in Everything and show it in the 7zfm pane? You can just right-click on the file in Everything, then select Copy Path to Clipboard from the Everything context menu. Then switch to 7zfm and paste it in the address bar.
It would be good if we could right-click in Everything and then use the 7-zip context menu option, but this does not provide a way to open a non-archive file in 7zfm. You can open a folder in 7zfm this way, but not a non-archive file. But I have set up OpenWithPlusPlus (https://github.com/stax76/OpenWithPlusPlus) to open up any file's parent folder in 7zfm, and once you do that, you can highlight the file in 7zfm and click File > ADS.
There is the annoyance that once you have the containing folder open in 7zfm, you have to find again the file you wanted to add streams to. I haven't found a way to do this automatically.
More ideas appreciated!