Why you can't use special forbidden characters in Windows filenames

Have you ever gotten an error pop-up when you were naming a file in Windows? Your PC simply won’t let you add a question mark or a couple of other different characters to your filename. But why is this and can you work around it?

Windows character alternatives: ” ‹ › ⁎ ∕ ⑊ ＼︖ ꞉ ⏐

#Windows #Filenames #ForbiddenSymbols

Credits: Koen Verhaagen

Sources:

[Sakamoto_E]

Can I use U+A789 instead of colon (I mean, I am actually already using it and it is working, as of now), and will this somehow mess things up in the future?

[mikegargan]

I'll be sure to give it a shot, thanks for sharing

[otherside]

Does that apply to Windows 11 also? Didn't Microsoft fix it?

[ivo]

I wish Windows would write their programs with REGULAR people in mind (99% of the people), and not expecting that every user is a programmer (1%). For example, I just want to be able to write a title with a question mark without being bothered by programming language. Programming should be on the background, and should NEVER influence normal use. And it doesn't end with some forbidden characters, which amateur can find hidden files with the unnatural way of file naming Windows uses?

[brianbuddyACP]

There is actually a work around to use the real characters by booting into a Linux environment, naming them there, then booting back into Windows. Linux doesn’t have these restrictions, except /. Though there’s no legit reason to do this, since Windows will error out in some interesting and strange ways if you do this. Side note, in Windows 10, if you have 2 folders in the same directory with the same name, but one has a > and the other has a <, Windows will see the directory as corrupted and won’t work with it. Do this in drive C and Windows won’t boot anymore