I found a file with .DS_Store extension in one of my drives. How did it get there?

My Operating System is Windows 7 64-bit and to the best of my knowledge I never accessed an Apple computer nor was accessed by one.

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1 Answer

That file is a proprietary Mac/OSX system file that holds attributes/meta-data about the folder it resides in.

These often appear in file shares that are accessed over the network by a Mac user; but that's not the only way you can get them. You may have gotten it in an archive (ie: a Zip file perhaps) you picked up someplace, which was originally created on a Mac.

I run into these all the time in archives we get from our graphic designers.

You're safe to just delete it.

More info:

For additional information on preventing them, perhaps check out these SU questions and answers (and others like them):

• How to prevent Mac OS X creating .DS_Store files on non Mac (HFS) Volumes?
• Any programs for getting rid of .DS_Store files?

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