Illegal+or+Reserved+Names+How+to+Delete+Files

Illegal or Reserved Names How to Delete Files

On occasions an application will create a file that has an ʺIllegalʺ file name

(That is, a name thatʹs reserved by the operating system, such as LPT1 or PRN).

If this happens, it is possible that you may not be able to delete these files using the graphical interface.

Hereʹs how to delete them: ‐

If the partition on which the files reside is formatted in FAT, at the MS‐DOS prompt, type DEL and then the file name with wildcard characters, such as DEL LPT?.*

If the partition is NTFS, youʹll need to use a syntax that bypasses the normal reserved word checks: DEL \\.\(drive letter):\(path)\(file name)

(For example:‐

DEL \\.\c:\myfolder\lpt

There are those amongst you who are baffled by this tip

If you are just ignore it, do not try to use it.

__**That is a very serious piece of advice.**__