Why can I not create a folder named CON?

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Why can I not create a folder named CON?

by Vic Ferri

Con (which stands for console) is one of several reserved system names that 
cannot be used in naming folders or files.
Try it.  Create a new folder and name it CON (upper or lower case).  You will 
see that you cannot. The folder
name will keep going back to "New Folder"
Other words that cannot be used for folder or file names are:
 AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL

These reserved system names go all the way back to the early days of Dos where 
con was used
for file operations such as copying. ie  copy con c:\myfolder\myfile.txt 
d:\back\myfile.txt
A conflict would occur if the folder or file was also named con.

See here for more info
http://snipurl.com/j02p

But don't ever let anyone tell you it's IMPOSSIBLE.

Secret

There actually is a way to create a folder named con or wth any other reserved 
named, but it
would be quite a useless folder..  

For convenience, I'll demonstrate with a bat file that when double clicked will 
create a folder named con in your c: drive.

Open up a new notepad document and enter this command:
md \\.\c:\con

Save the file with a .BAT extension.
That's it.  Double click it and voila!  
A folder named con will be produced.

Now try copying or moving something into it. You won't be able to. You'll get 
an "access denied" message.
You'll soon realize you don't want this folder anymore and you'll try to delete 
it, only to find,  that it won't delete.
You'll get a "cannot find specified file" error message.

But don't worry. We can delete it easily with  another similarly syntaxed 
command.
This time, make a bat file with this command:
rd \\.\c:\con

Double clicking it will delete the folder in a flash.


Now that you know this, you can try, just for fun, challenging someone to 
create a folder named CON.
Most will be mystified when they discover they can't do it and impressed when 
they see that  you can :)

vic

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Why can I not create a folder named CON?