If I open Windows Explorer and go to my Desktop (or whatever) and search (file contents, not just titles) in the top right search box for stream I have every file returned. If I pick a file, open it in a text editor and search for stream I get no hits.
What is special about this? I have images returned too. In there some piece of meta data I'm not seeing but Windows is?
Update:
I created an empty file and looked at it in a hex editor to confirm it is empty.
This file show sup when I search for stream. it is 0 KB.
Update2:
I checked at home on Windows 8.1 and it happens there too.
I think this is some Windows "feature" I am not understanding.
Best Answer
This is a (good) guess, but I'm reasonably sure you are seeing evidence of something called "alternate data streams", which is an NTFS feature that permits the storage "in" a file of alternate data that is only retrieved with specific reference.
Some references are:
My analogy would be to say that alternate data streams are this (software) generation's "hidden" files.