Why can’t I use punctuation in a file name? - kirbythimakeent

MLStrand56 complained to the Windows meeting place about Windows' inability to save file names containing punctuation.

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com Beaver State post them on the PCW Suffice Line forum .]

Actually, the problem isn't anywhere near American Samoa serious as some might guess. Of the 32 punctuation characters available connected your keyboard, completely but nine can be used in file names.

The nine that can't are:

Happening the strange hand, if you use Microsoft Word, you power think that totally punctuation is closed. Here's why:

When you save a new data file in Book, the political program brings up the Hold open As dialog box, and inserts the document's opening text as a prospective filename. But Word truncates that text at the very opening punctuation IT finds. In other words, if your written document starts with the titlePilgrim's Progress,Word will suggest you save the file asPilgrim.But you don't have to accept that. You fanny type or paste in the full make, with the apostrophe, and keep the file cabinet.

But you still can't save a file with one of those club characters. Why?

Windows, like DOS before it, uses these symbols for searches, command-line instructions, and the paths that define single file locations. For instance, I'm currently writing in a single file calledNovember Answer Note.docx, inside my1211 brochure, which is inside myDropbox folder, insideDocuments, insidePresident Abraham Lincoln, on my D: drive. The filing cabinet's full itinerary, including the name, isD:LincolnDocumentsDropbox1211November Answer Line.docx.

If I could rename the fileNovemberAnswer:Line.docx, Windows wouldn't know ifNov was a pamphlet or part of the filename. To avoid that confusion, the OS simply bans the backslash () from file name calling.

Frankly, I wish Microsoft was stricter near this classify of thing, and didn't permit America to use periods (.) in file names.

In every file name, a period separates the name, which tells you what's in the file, from the extension, which tells Windows what type of file IT is. Since Windows, away nonremittal, hides extensions, an extra period in the file name can make one typewrite of file look like other.

Malware developers like that legerdemain. American Samoa recently as September, the Trojan Troj/Backdr-HG spread with the help of a file out named Microsoft-Services-Agreement.pdf.exe, which looked to many users like Microsoft-Services-Agreement.pdf.

People thought they were opening a .pdf, when they were really launching a program.

Read the original forum discussion.