Saturday, September 30, 2006

Creating SYSTEM Folders in Windows XP (con, prn, aux, etc)

Just curious around the working of Windows XP.. i found one interesting stuff!
Folders with name: CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, & LPT9 cant be created using Windows Explorer or Command Prompt directly!

This is prevented as XP terms these folders as SYSTEM Folder Names reserved only for the Operating System..
But our curious brains dont stop pondering over such pessy stuff!

I searched around the net & found this trick to create system folders on XP through command prompt!

Try this:
CREATION
Syntax:md \\.\\$path
Example:prompt>md \\.\\C:\con
Explanation: This would create a folder named "con" on your "C Drive"

Similarly to delete such folder:
DELETION
Syntax:rd/s \\.\\$path
Example:prompt>rd/s \\.\\C:\con
Explanation: This would remove the folder named "con"!
Note: rd(Remove Directory) command is used with "/s" switch as otherwise it would give error that "folder is not empty"!

On another hand...if you ever wondered how to create a folder with no name...then try this:
Create a New Folder from Windows Explorer
Select rename & type: "ALT+255"(Use Numpad)..thats it!
ALT+255 stands for blank character in ASCII...so it still accepts your folder name!

Keywords: computer, file folders, information systems,network,operating systems,system,system 2000,system folder,system folders,system volume information folder,systems,technology,windows system folder,windows xp folders

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it is just like DOS commands which we use 10-12 years back.
best wishes

Dan S said...

It's just OS history which goes back in the 80's: Windows core foundation is DOS which in turn was developed from CP/M (most people never heard of it), and CP/M had several reserved words for peripherals:
CON - console (i.e. keyboard)
PRN - printer
AUX - auxiliary (i.e. serial or COMx)

Plain old history...