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  3. Structured Storage Xplorer
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Structured Storage Xplorer ironfede

Use this command to install Structured Storage Xplorer with WinGet:
winget install --id=ironfede.StructuredStorageXplorer -e

Structured Storage Xplorer

Introduction:
Structured Storage Xplorer is a .NET/C# library designed to manipulate Compound File Binary Format (CFBF) files. It provides developers with tools to work with structured storage in various file formats, including Microsoft Office documents, Outlook messages, and more.

Key Features:

  • Support for Large Files: Handles files up to 16 TB using major format version 4.
  • Transactional Operations: Allows committing or reverting changes to ensure data integrity.
  • Consolidation: Reduces on-disk size by removing free sectors.
  • Nullable Attributes: Manages nullable properties efficiently.
  • Compatibility: Supports netstandard2.0 and net8.0 for broad compatibility.

Audience & Benefit:
Ideal for developers, professionals, and organizations needing to manipulate structured storage files. It offers enhanced productivity by simplifying complex file operations, ensuring data integrity, and optimizing disk space usage.

Installation Note:
Structured Storage Xplorer can be installed via winget, providing a seamless setup experience.

This tool empowers users with robust capabilities for handling compound files efficiently, making it an essential resource for developers working with structured storage formats.

README

OpenMcdf

GitHub Actions CodeQL OpenMcdf NuGet OpenMcdf.Ole NuGet NuGet Downloads

OpenMcdf is a fully .NET / C# library to manipulate Compound File Binary File Format files, also known as Structured Storage.

Compound files include multiple streams of information (document summary, user data) in a single container, and is used as the bases for many different file formats:

  • Advanced Authoring Format (.aaf)
  • Microsoft Office (.doc, .xls, .ppt)
  • Outlook messages (.msg)
  • Visual Studio Solution Options (.suo)
  • Windows thumbnails cache files (Thumbs.db)

OpenMcdf v3 has a rewritten API and supports:

  • An idiomatic dotnet API and exception hierarchy
  • Fast and efficient enumeration and manipulation of storages and streams
  • File sizes up to 16 TB (using major format version 4 with 4096 byte sectors)
  • Transactions (i.e. commit and/or revert)
  • Consolidation (i.e. reclamation of space by removing free sectors)
  • Nullable attributes

Limitations

  • Limited error tolerance/recovery
  • No support for single writer, multiple readers
  • No support for red-black tree balancing

Directory entries are stored in a binary search tree where the entries are sorted but the tree is not balanced. i.e. the tree is "all-black", which is a valid red-black tree but has suboptimal performance for traversing large trees (though still considerably faster than some other clients).

Clients such as LibreOffice create trees with red-violations, which OpenMcdf is tolerant to reading and writing. Files with balanced red-black trees such as those created by Microsoft implementations will currently become unbalanced upon adding or removing directory entries. Fortunately, since other clients are also tolerant of trees that are either unbalanced or have red-violations, this should not be a major issue. The Wine implementation also has the same limitation.

Versions
2.3.1.0
Website
github.com
License
Last updated
5/15/2025
Download latest version

Getting started

To create a new compound file:

byte[] b = new byte[10000];

using var root = RootStorage.Create("test.cfb");
using CfbStream stream = root.CreateStream("MyStream");
stream.Write(b, 0, b.Length);

To open an Excel workbook (.xls) and access its main data stream:

using var root = RootStorage.OpenRead("report.xls");
using CfbStream workbookStream = root.OpenStream("Workbook");

To create or delete storages and streams:

using var root = RootStorage.Create("test.cfb");
root.CreateStorage("MyStorage");
root.CreateStream("MyStream");
root.Delete("MyStream");

For transacted storages, changes can either be committed or reverted:

using var root = RootStorage.Create("test.cfb", StorageModeFlags.Transacted);
root.Commit();
//
root.Revert();

A root storage can be consolidated to reduce its on-disk size:

root.Flush(consolidate: true);

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Property Set Data Structures

Support for reading and writing OLE Properties is available via the OpenMcdf.Ole package. However, the API is experimental and subject to change.

OlePropertiesContainer co = new(stream);
foreach (OleProperty prop in co.Properties)
{
  ...
}

OpenMcdf runs happily on the Mono platform and multi-targets netstandard2.0, net8.0, and net10.0 to maximize client compatibility and support modern dotnet features.

Install Structured Storage Xplorer using WinGet - wingetCollections