Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

[herogee]

Check this:

I had the very recent man like essential mix from Cream, Ibiza playing in windows media player and at the same time I was sorting some folders, so I decide I want to move that very set I was listening to. So I think to myself "damn, the thing is playing right now, so I have to stop media player to be able to move it to another folder". Even so, I just went ahead and moved the file, just for the sake of getting that popup saying "access denied" or whatever it is that it says to that effect and ... guess what? The file moved without no hassles and all the while it kept on playing through media player. I am impressed! (yes I already mentioned I am a geek).

Or is it that you're somehow able to do that courtesy of media player only? Could anyone do this before? I've been using winamp up till now so I don't know, but my guess would be that that is impossible - at least in theory, you can't move a file while you're reading from it!

Cheers, and sorry for my geeky babbling ...

[beanzncheez]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

No more DOS in the background?

[feather]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

How is that possible? Did you finish playing the whole set in media player after the file was moved? My first thought was up to a certain duration of the set was buffered in media player and that's what was playing back despite you moving the file.

[herogee]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

Yeah, I thought the same, but the set kept on playing till the end without no interruptions!

[picklemonkey]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

You can do this with XP too. Probably with 2000 also. It's because the file name is only a pointer to the physical file. when you move the file from one place on your drive to another place on the same drive, you don't actually touch the file, but instead you just move the pointer. This isn't new to Vista

[picklemonkey]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

proof of the concept

http://picklemonkey.net/stored/AliasMaker.exe

I made this program a few years ago to create multiple aliases (linux symbolic links) for the same file. try this:

1. create a new text file and type some random text in it.
2. run aliasmaker
3. type the path to the text file in the top box
4. type an alias filename you want to create in the bottom box with no path
5. click create.

you'll now have 2 filenames for the exact same file. this can be proven by opening each filename, typing and saving extra words, and closing/opening the other filename. as long as those two filenames exist on the same drive, you can put them anywhere you want. it doesn't take up double the space on your computer, but instead it's basically a shortcut to the file on the disk itself. plus, the file won't actually be deleted from your disk until you delete all aliases.

just some quick proof of concept that the filenames aren't the important part of a file.

[herogee]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

You can do this with XP too. Probably with 2000 also. It's because the file name is only a pointer to the physical file. when you move the file from one place on your drive to another place on the same drive, you don't actually touch the file, but instead you just move the pointer. This isn't new to Vista

That figures! Nice one mate

[beanzncheez]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

I thought he was saying that he did this on multiple drives. Serves him right for not giving us all of the info.

[FlashLight]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

i had to try this out...

with winamp playing this isnt possible, but with media player i moved the file without problem, from one drive to other and back, but it wont move back to the original location.

so it is possible to move file even to another drive,
doesnt that mean that the file is copied, too?

[picklemonkey]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

when you move from one drive to another it makes a copy then deletes the old one. when you moved from the drive to the other, it created the copy and deleted the pointer. once that wmp process frees up the file, it will be deleted by the OS, then you can move back.

[feather]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

So this is allowed in Windows but it still depends on the program that is accessing the file right? Certain programs would keep the file locked.

[res0nat0r]

Re: Geeky Topics: Vista allows you to move files while they are being accessed!

oh snap, something i have been able to do in linux/unix since ext2 and ufs were created. what reference filehandles by inode numbers instead of actual filename + paths i would assume?
it is always a pain when i am listening to some mp3s in windows and trying to reorganize my music and my move gets cutoff because winamp has a tune open. i guess this is why anytime i am doing any major rearranging of my music i do it when im booted into my linux partition. command line 100x > clicking when you want to get stuff done in bulk or done quickly.