Changes in dir command

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Michael J. Thurgood - 22 May 2008 14:08 GMT

Within the command prompt in Windows Vista, the dir command now shows
non-zero byte counts for folders. This is a change from prior versions of
Windows such that now, the output from the "dir" command does not match
right-click, Properties from Windows Explorer in terms of total bytes for a
folder (including subfolders). Is there any way to change the behavior of
the "dir" command to report 0 bytes for folders?

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Michael J. Thurgood - 22 May 2008 14:17 GMT

I need to clarify that these differences in the "dir" command appear to occur
when obtaining the directory of a CD or DVD. Folders still report zero bytes
within "dir" commands run on hard drives or network drives.

> Within the command prompt in Windows Vista, the dir command now shows
> non-zero byte counts for folders. This is a change from prior versions of
> Windows such that now, the output from the "dir" command does not match
> right-click, Properties from Windows Explorer in terms of total bytes for a
> folder (including subfolders). Is there any way to change the behavior of
> the "dir" command to report 0 bytes for folders?

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Mark L. Ferguson - 22 May 2008 14:52 GMT

You may find a hidden file named desktop.ini in those folders. The autorun
feature writes it.

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Mark L. Ferguson
.

> I need to clarify that these differences in the "dir" command appear to
> occur
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>> of
>> the "dir" command to report 0 bytes for folders?

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Michael J. Thurgood - 22 May 2008 15:04 GMT

I don't think a hidden desktop.ini explains the difference. I use the
following command to create a directory of archived data on CD / DVD for
later searching:
dir /w /s /A /OGN > [filename]

I believe using this syntax, all types of files should be included in the
directory output, including system and hidden files.

Here's an example output:
=======================================
Directory of F:\PDF_120605

02/07/2007 01:03 PM <DIR> .
02/07/2007 01:03 PM <DIR> ..
12/06/2005 05:20 PM 799,804 Figure-1.pdf
1 File(s) 801,288 bytes
=======================================

Though the folder only has one file, the total bytes for the folder is
larger than the bytes for the file, so bytes for the . and .. folders is
being included.

Here is an example from an empty folder:

=======================================
Directory of F:\Projects\Modeling

02/07/2007 12:45 PM <DIR> .
02/07/2007 12:48 PM <DIR> ..
0 File(s) 1,060 bytes
=======================================

> You may find a hidden file named desktop.ini in those folders. The autorun
> feature writes it.

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Jim Dell - 23 May 2008 12:32 GMT

> I don't think a hidden desktop.ini explains the difference. I use the
> following command to create a directory of archived data on CD / DVD for
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>> You may find a hidden file named desktop.ini in those folders. The autorun
>> feature writes it.

I think the space might be for the file system itself. Record a CD or
DVD with no files on it and see how much space is taken up.

Jim

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