Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook

Managing NTFS alternate streams

In addition to NTFS permissions, Windows also tracks what is known as alternate streams regarding files. These alternate streams help identify where a file is originally from and what type of additional security to place on it.

In this recipe we will view the data streams on a file and unblock the file to allow full access.

Getting ready

One of the most common uses of alternate streams is when downloading files from the Internet. Windows will automatically tag these files and apply additional security when they are accessed. To access the files normally, you have to unblock the file.

For this recipe we will be downloading the WMF 3.0 Release Note s.docx file from http://download.microsoft.com. We will then use this ...