The funny thing is that in most Windows tools, it doesn't mean even alternate file streams. It simply is flat out illegal (unless used as a drive letter); most tools will reject any program trying to save a file in the format of "filename:ADS".
Even in managed code tools, it's this way. For instance, in C#, a statement like this:
Will error with "path format is not supported". There's no way to access ADS natively in .NET. The only way to access ADS is to evoke native Win32 methods.