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I am running WIndows 10.

I have moved my Desktop file to an external drive. My Windows is running in a virtual machine, and I need to access the desktop from elsewhere, so I though I’d try this. I used the Properties on the original desktop folder and used the Move button.

The desktop was successfully moved, but I find that there are now a large number of …:$DATA files. Some are ….Zone.Identifier$DATA, some are ….SmartScreen:$DATA.

What are these files, and is it OK to remove them?

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    This question is similar to: `:Zone.Identifier` files keep on appearing in Windows XP virtual machine. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.
    – music2myear
    Commented yesterday
  • These are the result of the external drive you're putting the files on not supporting Alternate Data Streams. This metadata is therefore broken out into its own files. The linked duplicate answers this question.
    – music2myear
    Commented yesterday

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