Feature Request: Optional Windows NTFS Metadata Access
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 12:49 am
Please consider adding an optional Windows-only PureBasic API to access NTFS metadata (USN journal) to enable fast, incremental volume-wide file searches, fully optional and PB-friendly. This would allow PB programs to achieve near-instant search performance on NTFS drives without affecting cross-platform compatibility for the rest of the language. I realize Any app using this new feature would have to request admin mode to gain that access.
In other words... It would be valuable to have an optional, Windows-only PureBasic API to access NTFS metadata (including USN journal data) for fast, incremental file enumeration. This would allow PureBasic Windows programs to efficiently index and search entire NTFS volumes without recursive directory scanning, similar to how “Everything” achieves near-instant results. The API would be fully optional, fail gracefully on non-NTFS or non-Windows systems, and expose metadata in PB-friendly structures, preserving cross-platform compatibility for the rest of the language.
All in favor, say Yay!
In other words... It would be valuable to have an optional, Windows-only PureBasic API to access NTFS metadata (including USN journal data) for fast, incremental file enumeration. This would allow PureBasic Windows programs to efficiently index and search entire NTFS volumes without recursive directory scanning, similar to how “Everything” achieves near-instant results. The API would be fully optional, fail gracefully on non-NTFS or non-Windows systems, and expose metadata in PB-friendly structures, preserving cross-platform compatibility for the rest of the language.
All in favor, say Yay!