Windows XML files, part II: Popular applications

As we mentioned in the preceding tip, you can learn a lot about XML in the Windows environment by executing the following command sequence on any modern Windows (2000 or newer) desktop or server PC:

cd c:\
dir *.xml /s >> xmlfiles.txt

For convenience, we assume that C: is the Windows boot drive (if in doubt, try resolving the %SystemDrive% or %SystemRoot% environment variables or simply type set at the command line). In fact, running this command on my current Windows XP desktop machine produces a listing of nearly 500 files across a wide variety of directories—so many of them in fact, that we decided to break this story into two parts, of which this is the second. The first part covered XML files related to Microsoft operating systems, tools or applications. This part deals with other files outside the Microsoft company umbrella.

How can you tell which files are Microsoft specific and which ones aren't? A first clue comes from where any given file resides. Those familiar with Windows file structures will recognize certain directories as being more likely to contain files from Microsoft than other vendors (such as elements in the …\Windows or …\Windows\System32 folders). Items that show up in the …\Documents and Settings\... hierarchy or inside …\Program Files, however, almost certainly belong to applications and that where we'll turn our focus here.

As we browsed through the contents of xmlfiles.txt, we came across numerous items that you'll probably find on your systems, too (at least if you run the same applications that we do). For brevity, we omit the .xml file extension. One hint to help keep your lookup time under control: Stay away from the XML files in the …\Temporary Internet Files\… folders. They're not usually of much interest for Windows spelunking anyway. Also please note that some applications — such as CyberLink PowerDVD — seem to absolutely revel in littering drives with numerous copies of files with the same names.

This is the tip of a veritable iceberg, where we picked just the first 18 of a long series of such filenames from our xmlfiles.txt file. Digging into these provides insight into and information about the applications active on your machine and often provides another window into data that you might otherwise have to navigate through multiple menus to access otherwise.

Just as Microsoft has taken the easy-to-read, easy-to-parse and easy-to-store nature of XML to heart, it looks like a great many application vendors have done likewise. All the way from Adobe, whose entries we showed here, to Zone Labs (whose entries we didn't get to), you'll find lots of useful information about applications tucked away in XML files.

About the author

Ed Tittel is a full-time writer and trainer whose interests include XML and development topics along with IT Certification and information security topics. E-mail Ed at etittel@techtarget.com with comments, questions or suggested topics or tools for review.