Unable to change filename to CON?

Question

Hi, I tried to change several filenames on my computer to "con", just CON with no certain extention. The computer refused the change and always returned the original filenames. It's the same with all kinds of files, even shortcuts. I tried this on other computers (XP) and they ALL refused the same filename change.

But when I tried other combinations like "con!", it worked !!!!

I would really appreciate it if u can professionally tell me why the word CON is not accepted on XP as a file name?

N.B: never tried on other windows systems like ME, 98, etc ..

Thanx

Answer 1

This actually is a unix-like feature. DOS device drivers are accessible like normal files, i.e. the everything-is-a-file philosophy. CON is the equivalent of /dev/tty, NUL of /dev/null, COM# of /dev/ttyS#, LPT# of /dev/lp# and CLOCK$ corresponds to /dev/rtc (PRN is an alias to LPT1, AUX is COM1). Every character device can be opened this way, block devices (which are assumed to be FAT formatted...) are named A: to Z:, as you will know. Many pseudo character devices (drivers which had to be loaded as drivers but were no character devices, like EMM386, HIMEM.SYS, ..) had forbidden characters like '*' in their device names to be hidden from the user.

Here is how you create the directory if you really need it to be named con

In your command prompt.. Start>Run>Command "OK"

type mkdir \\.\c:\con
It will create a con folder in c:\
However, you cannot access it by going cd\con
it will have an error, You can access it through windows explorer though..

Answer 2

Con is an illegal name because it is used by the operating system. It is a "Reserved word" it is short for "console" ie: the keyboard
================================
To create a file using the CON
open up a command prompt
Type "Copy Con test.txt"
Type your name
Press together
Press Enter
You are now back at the C: prompt
Type "edit test.txt"