How Microsoft Took Away My Freedom of Choice
Did you know that it is impossible to create a folder called CON using Microsoft Windows??
Everytime you open a new folder and try to change the name, it will automatically go back to ‘New Folder’…
Go on, try it - I know you want to.
Weird, right? But before all my conspiracy theories get out of hand, big brother is watching, etc.. I decided to do a little research and found this article:
It is in fact perfectly true that you cannot create a folder named “CON”, nor can you rename an existing folder to “CON”. However, there is no mystery surrounding this restriction whatsoever. The “team” at Microsoft, and a great many others besides, know perfectly well why you cannot name a folder “CON”. “CON” and a number of other character strings are in fact reserved names that go back to the days of DOS and cannot be used to name folders or files. Other reserved names are:
PRN AUX NUL LPT1 COM1 Potential drive letter - A: to Z: A number of others
I have to say, I feel kind of *conned*… I always assumed that I could name my folders anything I wanted.. the possibilities were ENDLESS… the world was at my feet…
And now THIS. 
November 7th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Yah, there’s a technical reason for these reserved words. This is what I could find off the top of my head in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_file, which is pretty much how your link explained it, too.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Use Linux.
You can name a folder “CON” if you want to.