What windows OS/filesystem feature lets Firefox do this ?

Factual Questions
1

So I just saved a webpage to my local computer (with Windows XP installed using Firefox), and as expected, it created a HTML file (called mywebpage.htm) and an associated folder for all the files the web page uses (mywebpage_files). But now when I use windows to copy the HTML file somewhere else on my drive it will automatically copy the folder along with it, even though I didn’t want to.

I didn’t even know you could do this in windows (and will give me a warning if I try and delete/rename the copied _files folder), is there some secret way to link files/folders together in windows ? Can I do this with other files/folders (not sure why I’d ever want to but, I’d like to know).

2

I’d venture to guess that it’s a feature of Windows Explorer that recognizes the set names (possibly.)

You might try moving the file in the command prompt and see if the same thing happns.

Start->Run->cmd

cd c:\wherever he\file\is

move mywebpage.htm c:\

If just the htm file moves, that will tell you how deeply the linkage is occurring in the system. If both the file and folder are moved, then quite deep. You might try viewing the properties on the file and see if the folder name is mentioned anywhere in it.

3

You can change this behavior by going to Control Panel -> Folder Options, then under View, look for the option called “Manage pairs of web files and folder as a single file”. FYI, the feature is called “connected files”, apparently, and you can find more info here: Xona Games - How Connected Files are Made, and their Problems

4

I’ve always wondered how that worked. This link contains a bit more / different detail, and notes

(Coles notes for everyone: Base file must have extension .htm or .html. The “connected” directory must be named the same but end _files or .files.)