It is the most popular operating system, under which the vast majority of users around the world work. Software produced by Microsoft, which has been successfully operating in the global market for more than thirty-five years, is installed on 90% of computers around the planet. Since 1975, when two ordinary students Paul Allen and Bill Gates decided to open their own software company, Windows has evolved from an add-on to MS-DOS into a full-fledged operating system that allows you to perform many different tasks. Such success cannot but amaze the imagination. However, not every user knows that the operating system they use has some very interesting features. For example, someone who wants to create a folder named con in the usual way will fail. Due to human curiosity, almost everyone who hears about this for the first time certainly tries to try their luck, but without achieving results, they resign themselves. Still, we won't give up and try to figure out why we can't create a con folder in Windows.

Fans of legends and tales offer the following version of why you cannot create a con folder. Bill Gates, the first person whose image comes to mind when mentioning Microsoft and the Windows operating system, one of the richest people in the world, seemed like a rather strange boy to those around him during his school years. He was madly in love with mathematics and programming and ignored “unnecessary” subjects that were uninteresting to him without the slightest attention. The parents were concerned about their son's strange behavior, and his classmates laughed and teased him. One of the offensive words that Bill was called was the word con, which translated means “nerd” or “nerd.” Many of those who were persecuted by classmates at school understand how they want to grow up as quickly as possible, acquire the most significant status possible, thereby proving to the offenders how wrong they were. The version that a folder called con in Windows does not want to be created precisely because Bill Gates was offended by his classmates, of course, has a right to exist, but raises a lot of doubts. There must be some more reasonable arguments. Besides, Gates has already proven to all his school detractors that a botanist can grow into a person known to the whole world.

In fact, when wondering why you can't create a con folder, it's worth going back to the source. The MS-DOS system was released in 1981. From then until 2000, when development of the product ceased, eight versions were released. It was thanks to this operating system, which was the main product of Microsoft at that time, that the company was able to develop into the largest corporation. In MS-DOS, to which Windows OS first appeared as an add-on, the word “con” had an important meaning: this name was reserved by the system for input/output devices. Modern Windows still treats it as the name of an already existing system folder. By the way, con is not the only name that cannot be assigned to a folder in Windows. A similar situation exists with the words nul, aux, lpt, prn and others. These names were also reserved in MS-DOS for certain functions. For example, the word nul is interpreted by the system as “nothing”. This is why you cannot create a con folder.

Working with any operating system, gradually learning more and delving into all its features and secrets, you can find a lot of interesting things for yourself. And if, having discovered some peculiarity, you are not too lazy to dig deeper and look for information on the topic, you can significantly expand your horizons. Whether to believe the stories or accept a more reasonable explanation is a personal matter for each user. But why not believe the story? After all, no matter how famous a person is, no matter how self-confident he may seem, somewhere deep down in his soul he can remain a quiet nerd, spending hours in the computer class and spending all his free time on his favorite pastime.

A few days ago I decided to change the device, and with it the system. When switching to a new device, it was necessary to transfer some files from the old one. It would be more logical to save them in a folder named com1 (I think this name justifies the logic - computer 1) , but when creating it, an error occurred referring to the incorrect device name, as a result of which the operation to create the folder failed.

I want to, but I can’t

I had no idea what they were talking about at the time, but after surfing the Internet, I was initially infuriated by most of the answers, but then everything fell into place. But now I’ll explain everything in order.

The legend that gripped the mind of the RuNet

The first 10 results in the search engine led to resources disseminating information about humiliated childhood Bill Gates. The main idea of ​​the articles was that in Windows you cannot create a folder con (Russian botanist) , because the founder of Microsoft was insulted with this word in his youth. This information surprised me - every 2 sources referred to this exact reason. And here I thought, did Gates really want to humiliate himself even more, exposing himself as a degenerate, and about the other folders (com1, com2) nothing was really said, which prompted me to continue the search.

Early Microsoft developments

Having dug even deeper into the origins of the RuNet, I came across the official Windows developers forum, where a user also became interested in the error when creating a folder with the name con, and he was given a completely reliable answer. The decision led back to the beginning of the company, when they are still at the end XX worked on the product MS-DOS, which soon became the well-known Windows, and the words "con" , "com1" and others - commands left over from the old system and reserved by the current one to avoid failures. Despite this, it is still possible to create a folder with a name similar to the system one.

There is a solution. I want this to be.

So, there is only one way to cross this barrier without using any third-party programs: enter the command in the Windows terminal. Open menu "Start", then write in the search "cmd" and press Enter.

To create a folder, we need to write the command md and indicate the path where you want to save it. I want to create a folder on the desktop, so I write the following: md \\?C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\con

To delete a folder use the command rd and the full path to it.

Impossible operations with the folder

When using a prohibited technique, prepare for restrictions. Let's say you managed to bypass the functionality of the system, but it will not allow you to move the folder to another location, and if you want to create any file in it, then this will need to be done in a subfolder con or another whose name is contrary to Windows rules. Of course, these restrictions can also be circumvented using certain programs.

Good day to you, dear readers of my blog. Today we will relax a little, since there will be no lesson, although the article still concerns working in Windows. It’s just that there’s an old legend going around the Internet that because of Bill Gates’s offense, files cannot be given a specific name. So today I’ll tell you about how you can’t name a folder in Windows, no matter what version.

Since ancient times, there has been a legend circulating on the Internet that when Bill Gates was a schoolboy, he was bullied by some of his peers, who gave him the nickname CON and constantly insulted him with this nickname. Con is translated in our language as “Bespectacled, nerdy, nerdy, etc.” And this childhood resentment was so ingrained in the mind of old Bill that when windows came out, he made sure that no one could create a file or folder called CON.

Yes. In Windows, you cannot name a folder or other document named con. Try it yourself. Depending on the version of Windows, you will receive an error or simply the previous name will appear.

True, it’s unlikely that old Billy did all this manipulation in order to take revenge on the children’s offenders. So the legend remains a legend. True, to be honest, when I heard this story, I believed it myself and thought for a very long time that it was true. Have you heard this version yourself? I think many have heard a lot. And what do you think, Why can this word not be used as a file and folder name?

In fact, all this catness has been going on since the days of MS-DOS and the early eighties. This name was reserved by the system itself for input and output devices, i.e. keyboards, mice, etc. The word CON itself means an abbreviation for the word Console, i.e. console. In Windows, this name was also reserved by the system, so no file or folder could have this name.

In addition to CON, you will not be able to create files and folders with the names PRN (Printer), COM1, COM2, AUX, NUL (Empty value), LPT1, LPT2, etc. All these names are reserved by our beloved Windows and are not available to the average user.

Workaround for this situation

You can, of course, go a little tricky and still create a file or folder with this name.

1. Just use the Cyrillic letters S or O to spell this word. But this is a lie.
2. You can create a folder with the name con and without changing it to Cyrillic. To do this, you need to enter the command line in any convenient way, for example, write cmd in the execute line and click OK. On the command line write the following - md\\?\C:\con. Instead of C:\, you can write another drive letter or folder path, for example D:\files\con.

The folder will be created, but you will still not be able to enter it and work with it. You won’t even be able to delete it and it will remain on your computer forever and every day its size will increase and devour your files... It took me somewhere. Of course I'm joking. You can remove it, but only again through the command line. This time you need to write the following in it: rd\\?\C:\con(Where C:\con is the path to the folder).

Well, don’t do any bullshit at all. You can create a Con folder to work in, but do you need it? Don't think. So you can play around for fun. Better think about protecting your files. Due to various factors that are not always in your control, you can lose all important information (viruses, incorrect operation, accidental deletion, hard drive failure, etc.). In order not to lose something very important, watch this video course. Everything is laid out on the shelves and even an absolute “zero” can understand it.

Well, in general, the legend about CON is cool. I really liked it, everything is juxtaposed quite interestingly. It’s more interesting to live with such cool myths, so there’s no shame in not knowing the whole truth.

On the Internet you can often hear a story that Bill Gates had some kind of nickname, saying “con” means nerd. And he made sure that a folder named CON could not be created in the system. I must say that this is nonsense. To understand why You can't create a folder named CON in Windows(and some others) let's refer to the official documentation:

Several special file names are reserved by the system and cannot be used for files or folders: CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, ​​LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL

A loose translation is as follows: there are some system-reserved names that cannot be used to name files and folders. This relic dates back to the days of DOS. We're going to go around it.

How to create a folder named CON

If you REALLY need such a folder, you can create it from the command line using the so-called UNC path.

1. Launch cmd.exe
2. Recruiting a team md\\.\C:\CON

In this case, we used the md (make directory) command to create the folder and specified the absolute path \\.\C:\CON (the path can be anything, even “ \\.\D:\Users\Dmitry\Desktop\con“, as a result, we will have a CON directory along the specified path.

In a similar way, we can create any of the “forbidden” folders. This also applies to files. Objects are deleted in the same way, via a UNC path.

How to delete the con folder

C:\>rd\\.\C:\CON

You won't be able to delete the created con folder using normal means - Explorer will display an element access error:

Why might you need to create a con folder?

Well, first of all, this is a great topic for jokes. You won't be able to delete the folder using the usual method. Its properties are also very characteristic. No security parameters, no size, no creation date.

An interesting fact or empty speculation from the life of Bill Gates

Why can't I create a con folder in Windows? Bill Gates, the person whose image comes to mind when mentioning both the Microsoft company and the Windows operating system, one of the richest people in the world, during his school years seemed to his peers to be a rather strange boy. He loved mathematics and programming and ignored “unnecessary” subjects that were not interesting to him. His classmates laughed at him and teased him. He was called the offensive word con, which in translation means “nerd” or “nerd.” Those who were persecuted by classmates at school want to grow up quickly, acquire significant status, thereby proving to the offenders how wrong they were. The version why a folder called con in Windows is not created precisely because Bill Gates was offended by his classmates, of course, has a right to exist, but is questionable. In addition, Gates has already proven to all the school “offenders” that a nerd can grow into a person whose name is known to almost the whole world.

But if we want to hear a more serious answer, then we should go back to the roots. The MS-DOS system was released in 1981. From then until 2000, when the product was no longer developed, eight versions were released. It was thanks to MS-DOS, which was Microsoft's main product at that time, that the company became the largest corporation. In MS-DOS, as add-ons, the word "con" had an important meaning: this name was reserved by the system for input/output devices. Modern Windows still treats it as the name of an already existing system folder. And the word con is not the only name that cannot be used to name a folder in Windows. You also cannot name a folder with the words nul, aux, lpt, prn and others. These names are also reserved in MS-DOS for certain functions. For example, the word nul is perceived by the system as “nothing”. So the reason for this is not childhood grievances, but the systemic superstructure.
I hope it was interesting, in the next article I will talk about some interesting homemade products

Tags: Windows, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Dura Lex, Programming