{"id":4778,"date":"2015-03-16T04:16:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/?p=4778"},"modified":"2015-03-16T04:20:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:20:45","slug":"cant-delete-files-containing-special-characters-in-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/cant-delete-files-containing-special-characters-in-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Can&#8217;t Delete Files Containing Special Characters in Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There might be situations where you need to delete some folders or files contains special characters in the filenames. When you try to delete, move or rename such a folder\/file from Windows Explorer, you&#8217;ll receive the error message &#8220;<em>The file name you specified is not valid or too long<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/unable-delete-file.png\" alt=\"unable-delete-file\" width=\"448\" height=\"263\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4782\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Or get a similar error message &#8220;<em>The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect<\/em>&#8221; when you try to delete the folders\/files from Command Prompt.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/filename-syntax-incorrect.png\" alt=\"filename-syntax-incorrect\" width=\"600\" height=\"194\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4783\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I have tried many third-party softwares such as unlocker, 7-Zip File Manager, and other tricks discussed in various forums. But none of them work. This problem is very tricky because a set of special characters can&#8217;t be used in filenames, such as<br \/>\n<code>\\ \/ : * ? \" < > |<\/code><\/p>\n<p>Almost all Windows apps are unable to process these stubborn files. To get around this problem, you need to use a Ubuntu Live CD or Linux distribution. In my example, I boot my computer from Ubuntu Live CD and I can then easily create, open, rename or delete any folders or files with special characters. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ubuntu.jpg\" alt=\"ubuntu\" width=\"600\" height=\"331\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4784\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Almost anything (only the <strong>\/<\/strong> character is not allowed) will be allowed in the filename after booting to Linux or Ubuntu. Using this method, you can delete or rename any Windows folders\/files located in your hard drive.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There might be situations where you need to delete some folders or files contains special characters in the filenames. When you try to delete, move or rename such a folder\/file from Windows Explorer, you&#8217;ll receive the error message &#8220;The file name you specified is not valid or too long&#8220;. Or get a similar error message [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[2096,2098,2099,2097],"class_list":["post-4778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-others","category-tips-tricks","tag-delete-files-with-special-characters","tag-filename-not-valid","tag-filename-syntax-incorrect","tag-rename-files-with-special-characters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4787,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions\/4787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}