What do green folders mean in Windows 7 Explorer?

I downloaded a ZIP file and dragged the files out of the ZIP into a directory. The subdirectories I copied displayed in Windows Explorer in green instead of the default black.

What does the green folder text mean?

(In case you're wondering, the download was from Baseline CSS)

Solution 1:

Green means encrypted, blue means compressed.

If you right-click a file, go to properties and click advanced (under general tab) you have the option to encrypt the folder.

If this is a domain computer, it can be set centrally through group policy by your domain administrator which may be the reason you did not know about it… otherwise, I have not seen a program that does this automatically so you must have accidentally enabled it.

Solution 2:

Green files mean they are encrypted - you can change the color:

Windows explorer colors

Files in blue are NTFS compressed files. Files in green are encrypted files. If you don't want NTFS compressed files/encrypted files to be shown in a different color, follow this steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer.

2. Click Organize, Folder and Search options.

3. Choose the View tab.

4. Click to deselect Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color check box.

5. Click OK.