I am wondering where I can find a list of characters that are not allowed for
Windows naming conventions. If someone knows what the invalid characters are
or where I can find them please let me know. I need a complete list.

Can't pledge this as gospel, but it is VSS/UNC listed as illegal:

Dollar sign ($)
At sign (@)
Angle brackets ( ), brackets ([ ]), braces ({ }), and parentheses (( ))
Colon ( and semicolon (
Equal sign (=)
Caret sign (^)
Pipe (vertical bar) (|)
Asterisk (*)
Exclamation point (!)
Forward (/) and backward slash (\)
Percent sign (%)
Question mark (?)
Comma (,)
Quotation mark (single or double) (' ")
Tab

HTH |:)

"HRM" wrote:

I am wondering where I can find a list of characters that are not allowed for
Windows naming conventions. If someone knows what the invalid characters are
or where I can find them please let me know. I need a complete list.

FWIW, Word (Windows 2000) has no problem with commas, quotes, or
parentheses.

The character that most often causes problems for unwary users is the
forward slash. For those of us accustomed to writing dates as 10/17/05, it
takes a while to get used to writing 10-17-05 instead.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"CyberTaz" wrote in message
...
Can't pledge this as gospel, but it is VSS/UNC listed as illegal:

Dollar sign ($)
At sign (@)
Angle brackets ( ), brackets ([ ]), braces ({ }), and parentheses (( ))
Colon ( and semicolon (
Equal sign (=)
Caret sign (^)
Pipe (vertical bar) (|)
Asterisk (*)
Exclamation point (!)
Forward (/) and backward slash (\)
Percent sign (%)
Question mark (?)
Comma (,)
Quotation mark (single or double) (' ")
Tab

HTH |:)

"HRM" wrote:

I am wondering where I can find a list of characters that are not
allowed for
Windows naming conventions. If someone knows what the invalid characters
are
or where I can find them please let me know. I need a complete list.

This does help. I also found something on google. I will combine the two to
form some basic rules until we can get a notification built in. Thanks for
your help. I also posted the other rules I found for anyone else who might be
needed help. If anyone knows if Microsoft has this info posted somewhere,
please, let me know!

General rules for applications creating names for directories and files or
processing names supplied by the user

include the following:


a.. Use any character in the current code page for a name, but do not use
a path separator, a character in the

range 0 through 31, or any character explicitly disallowed by the file
system. A name can contain characters in the

extended character set (128€“255).
b.. Use the backslash (\), the forward slash (/), or both to separate
components in a path. No other character is

acceptable as a path separator. Note that UNC names must adhere to the
following format: \\server\share.
c.. Use a period (.) as a directory component in a path to represent the
current directory.
d.. Use two consecutive periods (..) as a directory component in a path to
represent the parent of the current

directory.
e.. Use a period (.) to separate the base file name from the extension in
a directory name or file name.
f.. Do not use the following characters in directory names or file names,
because they are reserved:
: " / \ |


g.. Do not use device names, such as aux, con, lpt1, and prn, as file
names or directory names.
h.. Process a path as a null-terminated string. The maximum length for a
path, including a trailing backslash, is

given by MAX_PATH.
The Unicode versions of several functions permit paths that exceed the
MAX_PATH length if the path has the "\\?\"

prefix. The "\\?\" tells the function to turn off path parsing. However,
each component in the path cannot be more

than MAX_PATH characters long. Use the "\\?\" prefix with paths for local
storage devices and the "\\?\UNC\" prefix

with paths having the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) format. The "\\?\"
is ignored as part of the path. For

example, "\\?\C:\myworld\private" is seen as "C:\myworld\private", and
"\\?\UNC\bill_g_1\hotstuff\coolapps" is seen

as "\\bill_g_1\hotstuff\coolapps".


i.. Do not assume case sensitivity. Consider names such as OSCAR, Oscar,
and oscar to be the same.
j.. The following reserved words cannot be used as the name of a file:
CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2,

COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5,
LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9. Also, reserved

words followed by an extension€”for example, NUL.tx7€”are invalid file names.
By following the rules listed in this section, an application can create
valid names for files and directories

regardless of the file system in use.


Backslashes (\) are used as element dividers in paths (dividing the file
name from the path to it, or directories

from one another in a path). You cannot use them in file or directory names.
They may be required as part of volume

names (for example, "C:\").



"CyberTaz" wrote:

Can't pledge this as gospel, but it is VSS/UNC listed as illegal:

Dollar sign ($)
At sign (@)
Angle brackets ( ), brackets ([ ]), braces ({ }), and parentheses (( ))
Colon ( and semicolon (
Equal sign (=)
Caret sign (^)
Pipe (vertical bar) (|)
Asterisk (*)
Exclamation point (!)
Forward (/) and backward slash (\)
Percent sign (%)
Question mark (?)
Comma (,)
Quotation mark (single or double) (' ")
Tab

HTH |:)

"HRM" wrote:

I am wondering where I can find a list of characters that are not allowed for
Windows naming conventions. If someone knows what the invalid characters are
or where I can find them please let me know. I need a complete list.