How To Remove Files with Reserved Names in Windows NT

ID: Q120716

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

Because applications control the policy for creating files in Windows NT or Windows NT Advanced Server, files sometimes are created with illegal or reserved names, such as LPT1 or PRN. It is not obvious how to delete such files using the standard user interface. This article explains how.


MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: You must be logged on locally to the Windows NT computer to delete these files.

If the file was created on a file allocation table (FAT) partition, you may be able to delete it under MS-DOS using standard command line utilities (such as DEL) with wildcards. For example:

These commands do not work on an NTFS partition as NTFS supports the POSIX subsystem and filenames such as PRN are legal under this subsystem. However, the operating system assumes the application that created them can also delete them; therefore, you can use commands native to the POSIX subsystem.

You can delete (unlink) these files using a simple, native POSIX application. For example, the Windows NT Resource Kit includes such a utility, Rm.exe.

NOTE: The Rm.exe utility is case sensitive.

Another option is to use a syntax that bypasses the normal reserve-word checks altogether. For example, you can possibly delete any file with a command such as:
DEL \\.\<drive letter>:\<path>\<file name>

For example:
DEL \\.\c:\somedir\aux

Additional query words: 3.10 prodnt CON PRN AUX CLOCK$ NUL COM1 LPT1 LPT2 LPT3 COM2 COM3 COM4 


Keywords          : kbusage nthowto ntfilesys NTSrvWkst 
Version           : 3.1 3.5 3.51 4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: February 6, 1999