Nope.  It was originally done as part of OS&#x2F;2 (Windows NT was sort of OS&#x2F;3 - the next version of OS&#x2F;2) and OS&#x2F;2 had &quot;extended attributes&quot; -  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Extended_file_attributes#OS.2F2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Extended_file_attributes#OS.2F...</a> - so NT also needed them for compatibility.