File problems

[John M]

I had a couple of file problems recently.

1. I have a file with the name "Élo Omega.zip", when I tried to open this
using the right click shell command, it failed to open. It also would not
open from the Winzip interface. When I removed the extended characters from
the file name, the file opened correctly using the shell command.

2. I had some files in a directory where the directory name was "subject;
the rest of the". Performing a search within this directory for files with a
common extensionm, Win was unable to find a single file even though I knew
lots were present. After removing the semicolon from the directory name, the
search worked correctly.

Now clearly the odd characters caused the problems, which seem related but
may not be.

My question is: is this the way Windows in supposed to work. I seem to
remember these things not being an issue previously so I wonder if something
has become corrupt

Any help please

 

[Alan Illeman]

I had a couple of file problems recently.

1. I have a file with the name "Élo Omega.zip", when I tried to open this
using the right click shell command, it failed to open. It also would not
open from the Winzip interface. When I removed the extended characters from
the file name, the file opened correctly using the shell command.

2. I had some files in a directory where the directory name was "subject;
the rest of the". Performing a search within this directory for files with a
common extensionm, Win was unable to find a single file even though I knew
lots were present. After removing the semicolon from the directory name, the
search worked correctly.

Now clearly the odd characters caused the problems, which seem related but
may not be.

My question is: is this the way Windows in supposed to work. I seem to
remember these things not being an issue previously so I wonder if something
has become corrupt

Any help please

1. I would have done the same. The name of the archive rarely affects its
contents.

2. Win2k doesn't complain if you create a directory with a ";" in the name,
but
why would you - especially if it denies searches.