over the past 6 months or so i have downloaded alot of music files. I sort them by the artists name and put them in their own folders. Well about a month and a half ago all the folders seamed to have acquried desktop.ini files and some have even acquried even jpeg's with album cover art. Niether the ini files or the album art have i created or downloaded. Here is a sample of one of the desktop.ini files: [.ShellClassInfo] FolderType=MusicAlbum MusicBuyUrl=http://windowsmedia.com/redir/buynow9.asp?providerName=AMG&albumID=A3E72480-C3FB-474E-8A48-065D2BEE6ACE&a_id=R%20%20%20109304&album=Sunny&artistID=4407D89C-4232-4B58-A3DE-FBBAC83CB35F&p_id=P%20%20%20%2030356&artist=Bobby%20Hebb&locale=409&geoid=f4&version=10.0.0.3646&userlocale=409 My question is, Is it safe to delete the desktop.ini files pertainging to my music folders and how can i keep it from coming back again? Since the album art and the INI files showed up when ever I go to open those folders it slows the system down. Bye the way i am running windows xp pro with 512 mb ram.
Try the link below. It's got a lot of info on the desktop.ini files and what you can do with them: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...hell_basics/shell_basics_extending/custom.asp
Deleting these files will loose all track data, album cover art and thumb data when you use WPM to play the music. With some albums it may even cause the music not to play. These INI files hold the data on your music albums that (WMP) Win Media Player (and other players) access when you play the music. WMP associates the music with this data and creates those files. Thats the link you posted. It ID's the album, the artist and track data and the version of WMP that you are using. In WMP10, not only are AlbumArt files hidden/system files, but they are now protected operating system files. So in order to see them in your music folder, you’ll have to go to Win Explorer's Tools menu, then Folder Options > View > [ ] Hide protected operating system files, (check the box and click apply) Now you’ll get to see about 6 new files in the folder: desktop.ini, thumbs.db, folder.jpg and 3 AlbumArt jpg files of different resolutions. You said opening the "folder" slowed down the system. Opening the folder should not create a problem nor would this folder create a slow down. Did you mean opening the files in the folder? I believe you have other spyware problems creating the slow down. Remember "Nothing is "FREE" on the web!", and especially so with music downloads. Music download, rip, & filing freeware is some of the most invasive spyware out there, and that's why it's really not FREE.
Yup all those files you mentioned, desktop.ini, folder.jpg, thumbs.db all showed up in the past few weeks. And its been really bugging me because they showed up in folders i created. And it seams some of these folders are now starting to slow down when i go to open them. Before i would click on one of my music or jpg folders i had created and the folder would open. Now the computer has to 'think" and it takes any where from 5 to 25 seconds to open. Where as before it would open in under a second.
