Highlight important text files in File Explorer

Although Windows 95 provides long file names, these can not give sufficient information about the purpose of a directory or other essential facts:

• Which program has created this directory?
• Which other files / directories belong to this subject?

Such information at best can be put into common text files. But then there is no clue about the importance of this file. This can be accomplished by

• An instructive extension – !!!
• An instructive icon associated with this extension –
• And of course – a reasonable text

In the right pane of this File Explorer screen shot you see an example:

Establish a special file type

The following steps describe the procedure to define an arbitrary file type and one possible action by double clicking on such a file in File Explorer:

1. Create a text file with your favorite editor (mine is TextPad), for example, _note.txt (the underscore lets this file sort as the first file after any directories.
2. Rename the extension to !!!
3. Select View > Options in the File Explorer
4. Press button New Type. A dialog to specify the new file type comes up. Enter the following data:

   Description:

   Important text file

   Associated extension:

   !!!

   MIME type:

   leave empty

5. Press the New... button to enter a new action:

   Action:

   open

   Application:

   Enter the path to the text editor or use the Browse button to find the application

6. Close this dialog with OK
7. Associate an icon with Change Icon... (for example F:\WIN_95\_DDDmods\Icons\Attention.ico)
8. Close this dialog with OK

Now you can double click on the _note.!!! file to modify the contents in your editor.

Create new important text files

To create new "Important text files", create any xyz.txt file and rename it to xyz.!!!

Hint

Feel free to take the icon from this small collection (ICO format).

Example of instructive text

My file D:\SystemDDD\Mods\WinDir\System\_Note.!!! contains the following text:

D:\SystemDDD\Mods\WinDir\System\_Note.!!!
The files
    Cool.dll.mod
    Shell32.dll.mod
contain the modified versions of icons, which are used by the system.

In case of problems with the modified Shell32.dll,
- Boot in DOS mode
- copy Shell32.dll to F:\Win_95\System\Shell32.dll
- Boot to Win95