Changing files into folders and vice versa

[VolumetricSteve]

Hey all, I have no idea what this .....thing is called.....but I know it can be done because I've done it before.

A long time ago, I read somewhere that you could take a folder, or file in windows (maybe 95, 98, probably XP as well) and add a huge string of numbers to the end of its name, and change it in a way that you couldn't normally change it.

As if the thing that makes a folder a folder, according to explorer.exe, was that huge set of numbers at the end of the name of the name of the entity (file or folder) and you could change it into whatever you wanted based on that number.

You could change files into folders and folders into files.

you'd type in what looks like a registry entry and I assume that made the windows explorer handle that thing differently.

Does anyone have any clue what I'm talking about? I'm completely lost, and all I have are my vague childhood memories of having done this. Google has also proved to be completely useless. I am not talking about zipped folders.

thanks in advance

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Why would you want to do such a thing - just because you've done it before, a long time ago?

Especially, what would be the point of it, and what would happen to the data in a file if it was turned into a folder? And what would happen to a folder's contents if it is turned into a file?

[VolumetricSteve]

Why would you want to do such a thing - just because you've done it before, a long time ago?

Especially, what would be the point of it, and what would happen to the data in a file if it was turned into a folder? And what would happen to a folder's contents if it is turned into a file?

I think I have a file that was once a folder, it has files in it I want.

The point would be to have fewer items to move around by hand, similarly to how people package things with zips and rars these days.

Presumably, if a file were turned into a folder, the contents of the file would be then displayed as files within that folder. This would happen because it was once a folder, and contains that kind of data.

I'm trying to avoid loading the files up into a hex editor, and ripping out the files by hand and trying to determine file types manually. I want to explore every avenue before I hit that point.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Ok, I see now what you want.

But are you sure it is not just a compressed folder, i.e. Windows ZIP file?

[VolumetricSteve]

I'm completely certain it's not a zip file, nor any other common archives. I've run these files through countless forensic file analyzers to get a better fix on what they are, but no dice. Seeing as how they're file analyzers, they might not be able to figure out if it's actually just a folder that looks like a file.

Also, when I've opened the files up in my hex editors, I see what MUST be uncompressed data, any decent compression algorithm wouldn't allow for what i've been seeing in there.

So how do I force explorer to treat this file like a folder?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

One more question, out of curiosity: what is the extension of that file?

But anyway, I don't know the answer to your question.

[VolumetricSteve]

One more question, out of curiosity: what is the extension of that file?

But anyway, I don't know the answer to your question.

neat......anyway, in hopes someone out there sees this and knows what I'm up against, here it is:

back with windows 95, there was a game called Hover packaged with it (sometimes)

as a point of legal interest, it was never installed, so it never made you agree to any EULA as far as I could tell. It was just a game you ran off a disc and....it was a lot of fun.....

I noticed the files the game used were organized strangely. All of the sounds were just .wav files stored in a folder called "sounds" and...if you wanted to take them and use them for something else, it's a simple matter of grabbing the files. As to be expected, the level structure data was a bunch of xyz coordinates or something, pretty small files. The weirdness is with the music files and the texture files.

These are .MUZ and .TEX files. I've run both of them through every ripping/extracting/decompressing/forensic analysis program I can find and come up with next to nothing. The REALLY weird thing is, the .MUZ files are obviously just midi files you can tell by listening to them in-game, and given the time the game came out, it's midi without a shred of doubt. It would seem that these files are encoded somehow.....this must have been VERY intentional on microsoft's part in the development of the game. But why? why protect three crappy little midi files .....the same applies to the texture files.....they don't appear to be archives, they don't appear to be anything but raw data, so I'm not sure how to get into them.

Why do I want to get into them? Because I want to more about getting into things like that, also, Hover is awesome.

I want to know why it's so hard to get into something that's so, so old and simple as a game Microsoft just made for funzies.