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Thread ID: 69120 2006-05-22 19:19:00 Renaming a file to 'con.pdf' is not allowed in XP/2000 DerekM (10438) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
456934 2006-05-22 19:19:00 I have had to try and rename a pdf to con.pdf (using XP) and get a system error saying 'a file with a name you specified already exists'. I tried to recreate this on a Windows 2000 SP4 and got the following 'cannot create or replace file: The name you specified is invalid or too long'

Any ideas as to why this filename is not allowed by Windows? I tried renaming the same file on an OSX Mac and there was no problem, leading me to think Microsoft has an issue with the word con?
DerekM (10438)
456935 2006-05-22 21:01:00 I tried this too, even con.doc didn't go through. :confused: :badpc: pcuser42 (130)
456936 2006-05-22 21:17:00 How interesting. I tried it too with both a .pdf and a .doc.
I didn't get any messages, it just instantly reverted to the original filename.

Apparently this is because: "prn" and "con", which identify printer and keyboard, can't be used.
pctek (84)
456937 2006-05-22 21:26:00 "con" is a system reserved name. You cannot use it for anything. It is a hangover from DOS days and was short for Console. There are quite a few of these words still in the windows system (and other systems as well). andy (473)
456938 2006-05-23 00:07:00 how about using con_.pdf quarry (252)
456939 2006-05-23 00:15:00 Hi Derek... been raised a few times on various sites. Try Google on "Windows con" for discussions, such as here kerneltrap.org Scouse (83)
456940 2006-05-23 00:59:00 Reminds me of when I was in 3rd form - all the computers were running windows 95 & connecting to a nt4 server using terminal server.

We could create shortcuts to C:\con\con from NT, and when a windows 95 machine saw the shortcut, it would try to follow it to determine if it was valid. For those that don't see the significance of that, whenever a windows 9x box tried to read from \con\con it bluescreens :D

When they got their first win2k machines, we enabled the force bluescreen key sequence. I had too much time on my hands during the computing classes.
Greven (91)
456941 2006-05-23 02:21:00 what is the point of the manual bluescreen shortcut??? I enabled it on my xp with x-teq for a laugh but couldn't see any other reason for it... Agent_24 (57)
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