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why we can not use any special character (?, <..) in windows File name ?

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename –  zengr Oct 28 '10 at 5:35
Because they have special meanings like input/output redirection, drive letter delimiter, 32k Unicode name support etc –  Remus Rusanu Oct 28 '10 at 5:36
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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Because they have special meanings in filesystem:

C:*.? - get all files with single letter extensions from C drive

: \ * ? - all have special meanings

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Fundamental rules for for Universal Naming Convention (UNC),which enable applications to create and process valid names for files and directories, regardless of the file system:

following reserved characters:

    * < (less than)
    * > (greater than)
    * : (colon)
    * " (double quote)
    * / (forward slash)
    * \ (backslash)
    * | (vertical bar or pipe)
    * ? (question mark)
    * * (asterisk)


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Since some character are Reserved characters in some operating system,say ? is used as wildcard,/ as path name component separator.

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