I have some files and folders in my c:\windows drive that have their names written in blue. What does this mean?

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--Sonic

Could they be COMPRESSED files????

These are the backup files used for/by WFP (windos file protection)

shark

Blue: Compressed files

Green: Encrypted files

To be more specific...NTFS allows compressing files. The files you're talking about are required to be there in case you decide you want to uninstall a hotfix (in the case it causes stability problems). They're compressed so they don't take up as much drive space as they normally would if they were uncompressed.

Arent these just files and folders from windows update?

As m3n70r said

Blue: Compressed files

Green: Encrypted files

You will only see this on NTFS partitions

Arent these just files and folders from windows update?

They are from hotfix/service pack installations, which don't necessarily have to be done from Windows Update. If you download the hotfix and apply it manually you will also get these directories.

They are safe to delete. However, deleting them prevents you from being able to uninstall a hotfix if you're having problems with it.

Also, if you manually download the hotfix you can instruct it to not create those directories by using a /n switch. Again, this prevents you from uninstalling the hotfix if it causes problems.

Edited February 12, 200620 yr by nmX.Memnoch

your disk is NTFS format,

and Blue means the files and floders are Compressed..

Yeah those are compressed files.

How did you get them? You probably ran Disk Cleanup with the option to compress old files to save space.