Keep in mind this usually doesn't work with the line of numbers above the letter keys; it's for the number pad that _doesn't_ come with every computer. If yours doesn't have one, you'll have to name your "special" folder something like "Tax Stuff" like everyone else.
Fundamentally, some BIOS character codes had no equivalent in the ISO 8859-1 derived character set used by 16 bit Windows, thus making the old non-unicode file explorer fail to display file names with those characters . The non-unicode keyboard driver would give up trying to send those missing characters to programs at all, but did have ALT+0xxx to type in all the new characters that weren't in DOS .
The naming restriction for folders with names like "con," "aux," "prn," and a few others on Windows stems from historical reasons related to MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System). These names are reserved because they were once used as shorthand for device drivers in MS-DOS.
Haha…That’s what I was thinking. I mean, you and Chuck pretty much have the same…is it cadence?🤔 and delivery style? Kinda Cool. If I didn’t see the network Chuck emblem in the corner, I would still think this video was affiliated somehow. Lol 🤷🏻♂️. Maybe it’s just me trippin’. 😅 🤙👊🏼 Right on.
For anyone who's wondering you cant name a file con or the other names, its because they want to have backwards compatible with older devices and programs. Tom Scott made a great video on it, would recomment checking it out
@@WranornYep, a leftover from MSDOS 1.x not having a special name prefix or suffix for devices and \DEV\CON not catching on when it was optional in MSDOS 2.x . Thus every derived OS continues to check if the filename is a basic device name before looking at the disk . Colons in file names have a new cool function since 1993 .
ALT+255 used to be inaccessible in much older versions of windows. You could only access from DOS. I used to hide DOOM at my friends house as his mom would freak out about that game.
Please make me an exception, I'd like to request a sample of that *homework* , for *research purposes* as I am a man who deeply studies about *culture.*
@@TalkingcatCOUGHCOUGHYeah…. P0rnography ain’t teaching you shite. Besides shite and maybe how the CGI team does things, camera angles, and basically anything you can find in any other kind of film. Besides how to draw Genitalia.
I once figured out how to make a directory junction that redirected to another folder, but BELOW that junction was actual data, like, as if it was a folder. How did I get to the data? Remove the junction. There was no other way; the data was just orphaned otherwise. Sadly, this was only possible in Windows XP, MS seems to have repaired that issue.
First I was like “woah, Chuck shaved his beard.” Then the guy started talking and I was like “woah, Chucks voice shaved its beard too.” Then I realized it wasn’t Chuck.
The numbers overflow back to 0 after 255. So your alt + 2800 is simply alt + 240. As proof: if you do alt + 2870 this gives you a number "6". 2870 % 256 = 54. If you do alt + 54 this also gives the number "6".
@@reikooters I believe it is recognized as a different character though? For example, on discord I can send an en "empty" message containing only alt + 2800, but not alt + 255.
@@iannys2387 I wasn't saying 240 (or 2800 as you call it) and 255 are the same - I'm saying that the range is only between 0 to 255. So your 2800 is actually just 240. So you can type alt+240 (and any number +256 such as 496, or 752, etc) and all are the same character as what you call 2800
The reason why you can't name a file CON or any of the other abbreviations is simple. This thing goes back to the MS-DOS days where device names were first. The 'CON' filename was the console device, 'AUX' was the auxiliary device, 'PRN' was the printer device, and so on with the rest of them.
Growing up, my buddy had an early mac, he had a folder on his desktop containing a grid of folders, each of those with still more folders. If you clicked on the wrong sequence of folders, it instantly shut down the computer. I bet you can imagine what sort of files were in there 😂.
You can fool everyone but God man, he dies for all sins, rose again and those who believed in him and accept his grace get to be with him or many choose to be without and come to destruction
The following folder names are also not allowed as these are reserved for system tasks: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9.
In the shell, you should be able to pull up the name of any folder for "cd-ing" into by simply typing "cd" then a space and then hit tab. Each time you hit tab, it suggests the next folder name. When you like the one it picks, you hit enter and bingo, you have cd'd into it.
The reason is because those names he listed correspond to Windows components. If you go to print management and click "Ports", you'll see several ports with those names. Having a folder with that name would cause windows to get confused
Yeah, you can easily access the folder in cmd, you just need to put quotes around the path. If you're in the same folder as the invisible folder, just type: cd " (and then press tab) you'll see the other space and the end quote. You can also use the "tree /F" command and it'll show the contents of the folder, so there are a few ways to get to the folder.
Any programmer, who read the MS documentation like for example "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces", in which it states: "Do not use the following reserved names for the name of a file: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, COM¹, COM², COM³, LPT0, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9, LPT¹, LPT², and LPT³. Also avoid these names followed immediately by an extension; for example, NUL.txt and NUL.tar.gz are both equivalent to NUL. For more information, see Namespaces." But that information is referenced by the MS documentation multiple times. Those are reserved names for default device handlers. You for example can use those devices in the console or in batch files (given they are fully defined, the devices are installed and their driver is loaded into memory), for redirecting in and output to the specific devices: CON (console), PRN (default printer), AUX (auxiliary port device), NUL(data sink; read returns 0 byte and returns success, write operations discard all data and return success), COM0 - COM³ (communication port device 0 - 12), LPT0-LPT³ (line print terminal device 0 to 12).
Explaining what he didnt: In Windows operating systems, you cannot name a folder (or file) with certain reserved device names, including "CON," "AUX," "NUL," "COM1" through "COM9," "LPT1" through "LPT9," and a few others. These names are reserved because they have historical significance and are associated with various input/output devices and system components. Using these names as folder or file names could lead to conflicts with system operations and cause issues. For example, "CON" is associated with the console input and output, "AUX" with auxiliary devices, and "NUL" is a reserved name for the null device. Similarly, "COM5" refers to a communication port, and "LPT1" refers to the first parallel port. Windows enforces these restrictions to ensure system stability and prevent unintended problems that could occur if these reserved names were used for folder or file names. To avoid issues, choose different names for your folders or files that don't conflict with these reserved names.
I assume the conflict would be, for example if you're on the C drive in terminal, typing CON could either mean the CON folder in the current directory, or the "CON" device. If relative paths were not a thing this wouldn't be an issue
@@ticos1235 No, you cannot name a folder "PRN" in Windows. "PRN" is a reserved device name associated with the printer, and using it as a folder name could lead to conflicts with the system's printing functionality. It's advisable to choose a different name for your folder to avoid potential issues.
iirc "alt-255" is known as the "non-breaking space" (essentially to prevent words/phrases from being split between separate lines on the page)", most programs detect it the same as a normal space but some treat it differently
neat trick, however the "invisible" icon doesnt work. as soon as you move the mouse, click, or mouse over it, it shows up as a black square. the only way to make it invisble again, is to go back and re-select the invisible icon. and even then it sometimes doesnt work and stays as a visible black square.
I used to use an invisible directory trick for all the folders and application aliases on my desktop on OS 10.3 (I think it was just a space in the name, or started with something special). Then I had a bunch of custom icon packs for all of them. Loved the way it looked to have all the “buttons” on my desktop
For those wondering how to type it, look for the numpad (it is on the far right of your keyboard. btw some computers may not have it) and you wanna press Num Lock. Then, hold down Alt, press 2 then press 5 twice. Then, let go. It may look like a space, but it is invisible character. Now type that into a folder and there u go
If it's on the desktop, click the desktop anywhere, to make sure nothing is selected, then just hit control+a, and you'll see the invisible folder has a selection border to it.
When you go to desktop items list on taskbar it will be pretty easy to notice i guess unless maybe you make sure it is at the end i think order is based on position on the desktop.
LOL. I used to add the Alt+255 at the end of my "secret" folders and files, back in the days of (Disk-supporting) Home Computers and MS-DOS (Yes, way *before* Windows). It worked perfectly!
"It's kinda hard to notice" Nah, that'd be the first thing I'd notice. A blank spot in a list (and I'm always looking at the details list) with a date created? Sussssss.
@@captainvenom4377you dont. If you don't write anything the 'autocompletion' starts from empty string which makes it enumerate over every item in current location. However, you can't /just/ type cd and tab into it. The character is a hard space ("non-breaking space"), and if you just input "cd", both gets trimmed out and cd runs with no arguments, just printing current path. What you have to do is enclose the 255 with within a quotations, which preserve spaces in file names (just as you'd have to do with cd "New Folder")
Nope, that doesn't work., _unless_ you use a quotation mark: *cd "* and then hit tab. Using quotation marks you can type it yourself too - *cd ""* - and it works.
easy to figure out. command prompt, type DIR and look at the file sizes. the file names should be something along the line of "ALT+255(1)", "ALT +255(2)" etc... isolate the folder with file contents, since the rest should be empty. and then type DEL+"ALT+255*" hit ENTER. This would solve that problem.
You used to be able to lock up a Telegaurd BBS if you uploaded any file named LPT1, COM1, etc. Reminds me a bit of that. My work around was to have a hidden files section that had all of the system devices already in it -- so it would say file already exists instead of people locking the thing up.
You cannot use these in the Windows GUI because they are reserved for MS-DOS names, have system or device actions references so there are not really very technical reasons for it.
You can actually still reference it in cmd by literally just using the term: "Alt+255". Since the stuff cmd is built on didn't have the full unicode character list they just added them as the stated alt code.
Alt-255, or ASCII 255 points to a null ASCII character, so it should work on any system if you have a way of typing ascii codes. You should also be able to navigate to that directory in terminal by doing: cd “(Alt-255)” Of course, you wouldn’t type the parenthesis or anything, just use Alt-255 between the quotations.
Con is reserved for files being sent to a driver for a console device. If you did name a folder con, it would be sent to your console. PRN is printer as well.
@shawnstafford7809In this scenario the folder is always there and clickable and is hidden but usable. By making it a hidden folder it would mean to access it you would have to I hide it each time. Say you want your “homework” folder hidden but useable, you could leave it in the corner of the desktop and it would be always accessible to you clicking it’s position, but no one else would know it’s there. TLDR easier to open the folder
I haven't used windows in a long time, but if I recall, just like in linux, you can put a .dot in front of the name and the folder will be completely hidden, even in file explorer. Unless you tick a setting to show hidden folders.