Comments on: Some Magical and weired bug in Microsoft Windows

By: Rezaul Kabir

Rezaul Kabir — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:16:40 +0000

COM1 COM2 … PRN NUL will also not work. These are internal device names.

However, you can change them using Programming languages such as C (using Interrupt 21h AH 39h). Once you create such folder, you will not be able to open the folder. Nice way to protect files.

By: Chiron613

Chiron613 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:11:54 +0000

Actually, the Microsoft “whole Team” could easily explain those bugs. So can many other programmers.

Really, there is nothing very mysterious about highly complex software containing bugs. Once the bug is recognized, it is usually a simple matter to learn what causes it, and how to fix it.

By: Roshan

Roshan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:34:39 +0000

@Craig – hey man don’t be so serious..it’s just a forwarded mail..you don’t have to be so serious about this…

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:32:40 +0000

“Microsoft the whole Team, couldn’t answer, why this happened!”
c’mon, that’s so stupid. Because of that, it felt like reading some spammy e-mail my grandparents send to me.

By: rajit

rajit — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:29:15 +0000

Ya this is not magical at all…
I too had a post written about the same stufs some month ago but some of the comments that I got really answered all the mystery.
CRazy Facts about Windows
Thanks to my readers.

By: Algunos bugs mágicos de Microsoft Windows y Microsoft Word | El Cofrecito

Algunos bugs mágicos de Microsoft Windows y Microsoft Word | El Cofrecito — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:19:34 +0000

[...] http://roshanbh.com.np Tags: bugs , microsoft , trucos , windows , [...]

By: Les bizzaries de Windows | Chez David : Free et OpenSource

Les bizzaries de Windows | Chez David : Free et OpenSource — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:58:31 +0000

[...] Some Magical and weired bug in Microsoft Windows écrit par Roshan Bhattarai sur le site : http://roshanbh.com.np/ convert this post to pdf. Partager : Ces icônes sont des liens vers des sites de partage de signet sociaux où les lecteurs peuvent partager et découvrir de nouveaux liens. [...]

By: Roshan

Roshan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:30:49 +0000

@all- Thanks for the link to wikipedia and I’ve tried with all the device file and we can’t create the folder with these names……thanks everybody

By: arda

arda — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:21:55 +0000

first one is not a bug either

it’s a well known “feature” since the days of DOS

check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_file

By: Dan Howard

Dan Howard — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:52:23 +0000

#1 is not a bug.

Look up COPY CON DOS command.

By: na

na — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:19:04 +0000

CON is reserved device name

By: Bush

Bush — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:18:53 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_hid_the_facts

By: Florian Potschka

Florian Potschka — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:52:18 +0000

Hey that’s great – I’ smarter than all the microsoft guys Just kidding. *g*

The second bug is ages old: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_hid_the_facts

And for the first one, I would guess that’s because CON is the name for the display and console device driver. Also you cannot name a file AUX, PRN, COM1, COM2, …

By: Danno Ferrin

Danno Ferrin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:43:16 +0000

The issue with con (and prn, aux, nul, and bunches of others) is that these map to magical DOS devices, so you can redirect file output to the console ‘con’ and other such stuff.

The tech support people obviously cannot use wikipedia, because the whole list of bad files is in the Filename entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename

By: Ferruccio

Ferruccio — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:17:53 +0000

#1 isn’t a bug at all. It dates back all the way to MS-DOS 2.0 (talk about maintaining backward compatibility!). There are two (that I know of) hard-wired device names CON and NUL. CON represents the console and NUL the null device (like /dev/null on Unix). Logically, these devices “exist” in every directory, but you’ll never see them in a dir listing. Try this:

C:>copy filename con

where filename is an already existing file. It will copy the contents of the file to the console (hopefully it’s a text file). Copying anything to NUL sends it to the bit bucket.