Color empty files in Windows

Question

I face a need to show empty (0 bytes size) files in color in Windows Explorer. (I get them over sftp and need to know whether they're empty to prevent data loss - an application creates empty files and then fills them in; I keep transferring empty files and deleting them from server afterwards, when they're no longer empty). A web search seems fruitless.

You can color compressed and encrypted files on an NTFS volume, so it would be nice if there were a way to color 0-byte files as well.

Solutions for Windows File Explorer, other explorers, Powershell are accepted.

Answer 1

Unfortunately there don’t seem to be any existing shell-extensions for Explorer to control the colors of files and folders.

If you are open to using alternate shells, then there are a several options:

• XYplorer supports coloring files (figure 1), but currently only by name. However, they take feature-requests, so you could ask them to implement a size-based color filter. Unfortunately XYplorer is not free.

• Q-Dir supports file-coloring as well (figure 2), but it too only supports filtering by name (as well as for read-only files). It too takes feature requests. Plus, Q-Dir is free.

• Directory Opus supports file-coloring (figure 3) according to any property of the file, but it’s not free. Plus, it’s not clear whether you can specify trigger values for those file properties. (It looks like you can only color columns.) Of course if they it doesn’t, then you can request the feature.

• ^☆ Far Manager is a free console file manager (like the command-prompt) which means it is text-based. If that is acceptable, then it has exactly what you want. You can create a color-filter via F9→Options→Files highlighting and sort groups to highlight zero-byte files (figure 4).

• ^★ Multi Commander is free as well. They too take feature-requests, but that’s not necessary because it already supports file-coloring (as of 3.5) according to several factors (figure 5). In fact, Multi Commander already comes with a color-filter rule for empty files built-in!

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Figure 1: XYplorer’s color-filter editor (only accepts filename patterns)

Figure 2: Q-Dir’s file-coloring (only by file-name and read-only attribute)

Figure 3: Directory Opus has limited file-coloring

Figure 4: Far Manager with zero-byte files colored

Figure 5: Multi Commander with zero-byte files colored

Answer 2

• For Empty Folders:

  You can runs this batch file in the current directory to mark the folders which are empty with a different icon (desktop.ini must be in the same directory as the batch-file)

  :: empty_folders.bat
  @echo off
  dir /a /b %1 2>nul | findstr "^" >nul || echo %%~fA
  for /f "eol=: delims=" %%A in ('dir /s /ad /b %1') do (
    dir /a /b "%%~fA" 2>nul | findstr "^" >nul || call:copyini %%~fA
  )
  goto :eof
  
  :copyini 
    copy %~dp0desktop.ini %1%
    attrib +s +h +a  %1%\desktop.ini
  

   

  ; desktop.ini 
  [.ShellClassInfo]
  IconResource=C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll,234
  [ViewState]
  Mode=
  Vid=
  FolderType=Generic
  

• For Empty Files:

  You can use a tool like the FMS Empty File Remover to simplify removing empty files.

N.B.: Both of these must periodically be manually run to update; they don’t automatically detect empty files and folders.

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure there's no way to render files with 0 bytes size in different color in File Explorer, unless you implement a custom IShellView.

Yet you can use search to find files with size of 0: Enter

size:=0

into Search field in File Explorer. The view will display all files with zero size:

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If you use Far Manager, you can highlight such files:

1. Press F9 to show the menu bar.
2. Click Options and then click Files highlighting and sort groups.
3. While cursor is in the first group (above Upper sort group), press Ins to add new highlighting rule:
   1. Select Mask checkbox, and put * in the Mask edit box.
   2. Select Size checkbox, and 0 into both >= and <= edit boxes.
      
   3. Click 1. Normal file name to change display color, click the desired Foreground and Background.
   4. Click 3. Selected file name, 5. File name under cursor, 7. File name selected under cursor to adjust these colors.
   5. Click OK to save the highlighting rule.
4. Press Esc or click outside the Files highlighting dialog to close it.

The files with zero size will be highlighted.
Highlight rules are processed in the order they are displayed in the Files highlighting dialog, to move a rule up or down, select the rule with cursor and press Ctrl+↑ or Ctrl+↓ correspondingly.

Answer 4

The DIY answer is to write a custom DLL and inject that into the shell. Once hooked it would alter the file color every time the shell is refreshed. Either that or a kernel mode driver.

If someone were to go that far, they might as also add some registry reading magic to their DLL that allows for toggling from Folder Options > View > Advanced Settings like a real shell extension.