For anyone who's wondering you cant name a file con or the other names, its because they want to have backwards compatible with older devices and programs. Tom Scott made a great video on it, would recomment checking it out
@@WranornYep, a leftover from MSDOS 1.x not having a special name prefix or suffix for devices and \DEV\CON not catching on when it was optional in MSDOS 2.x . Thus every derived OS continues to check if the filename is a basic device name before looking at the disk . Colons in file names have a new cool function since 1993 .
@@the1whoplayz I honestly don't know what happened up there, why did I say that we can get rid of the dot and how come I disagreed with myself, I simply don't get it, some questions just don't have answers.
Fundamentally, some BIOS character codes had no equivalent in the ISO 8859-1 derived character set used by 16 bit Windows, thus making the old non-unicode file explorer fail to display file names with those characters . The non-unicode keyboard driver would give up trying to send those missing characters to programs at all, but did have ALT+0xxx to type in all the new characters that weren't in DOS .
Haha…That’s what I was thinking. I mean, you and Chuck pretty much have the same…is it cadence?🤔 and delivery style? Kinda Cool. If I didn’t see the network Chuck emblem in the corner, I would still think this video was affiliated somehow. Lol 🤷🏻♂️. Maybe it’s just me trippin’. 😅 🤙👊🏼 Right on.
ALT+255 used to be inaccessible in much older versions of windows. You could only access from DOS. I used to hide DOOM at my friends house as his mom would freak out about that game.
The numbers overflow back to 0 after 255. So your alt + 2800 is simply alt + 240. As proof: if you do alt + 2870 this gives you a number "6". 2870 % 256 = 54. If you do alt + 54 this also gives the number "6".
@@reikooters I believe it is recognized as a different character though? For example, on discord I can send an en "empty" message containing only alt + 2800, but not alt + 255.
@@iannys2387 I wasn't saying 240 (or 2800 as you call it) and 255 are the same - I'm saying that the range is only between 0 to 255. So your 2800 is actually just 240. So you can type alt+240 (and any number +256 such as 496, or 752, etc) and all are the same character as what you call 2800
Keep in mind this usually doesn't work with the line of numbers above the letter keys; it's for the number pad that _doesn't_ come with every computer. If yours doesn't have one, you'll have to name your "special" folder something like "Tax Stuff" like everyone else.
Being 50 years old working with computers since the C64 I can say I find these specific videos quite informative for those who don't know. Old fart like me roll our eyes and think how can anyone not know this. God bless you.
I once figured out how to make a directory junction that redirected to another folder, but BELOW that junction was actual data, like, as if it was a folder. How did I get to the data? Remove the junction. There was no other way; the data was just orphaned otherwise. Sadly, this was only possible in Windows XP, MS seems to have repaired that issue.
First I was like “woah, Chuck shaved his beard.” Then the guy started talking and I was like “woah, Chucks voice shaved its beard too.” Then I realized it wasn’t Chuck.
Growing up, my buddy had an early mac, he had a folder on his desktop containing a grid of folders, each of those with still more folders. If you clicked on the wrong sequence of folders, it instantly shut down the computer. I bet you can imagine what sort of files were in there 😂.
You can fool everyone but God man, he dies for all sins, rose again and those who believed in him and accept his grace get to be with him or many choose to be without and come to destruction
The following folder names are also not allowed as these are reserved for system tasks: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9.
Explaining what he didnt: In Windows operating systems, you cannot name a folder (or file) with certain reserved device names, including "CON," "AUX," "NUL," "COM1" through "COM9," "LPT1" through "LPT9," and a few others. These names are reserved because they have historical significance and are associated with various input/output devices and system components. Using these names as folder or file names could lead to conflicts with system operations and cause issues. For example, "CON" is associated with the console input and output, "AUX" with auxiliary devices, and "NUL" is a reserved name for the null device. Similarly, "COM5" refers to a communication port, and "LPT1" refers to the first parallel port. Windows enforces these restrictions to ensure system stability and prevent unintended problems that could occur if these reserved names were used for folder or file names. To avoid issues, choose different names for your folders or files that don't conflict with these reserved names.
I assume the conflict would be, for example if you're on the C drive in terminal, typing CON could either mean the CON folder in the current directory, or the "CON" device. If relative paths were not a thing this wouldn't be an issue
@@ticos1235 No, you cannot name a folder "PRN" in Windows. "PRN" is a reserved device name associated with the printer, and using it as a folder name could lead to conflicts with the system's printing functionality. It's advisable to choose a different name for your folder to avoid potential issues.
The reason is because those names he listed correspond to Windows components. If you go to print management and click "Ports", you'll see several ports with those names. Having a folder with that name would cause windows to get confused
To be fair if you change the "sort by" to be reverse alphabetical, in a big folder it does keep itself pretty hidden if you're just quickly scrolling through.
neat trick, however the "invisible" icon doesnt work. as soon as you move the mouse, click, or mouse over it, it shows up as a black square. the only way to make it invisble again, is to go back and re-select the invisible icon. and even then it sometimes doesnt work and stays as a visible black square.
For those wondering how to type it, look for the numpad (it is on the far right of your keyboard. btw some computers may not have it) and you wanna press Num Lock. Then, hold down Alt, press 2 then press 5 twice. Then, let go. It may look like a space, but it is invisible character. Now type that into a folder and there u go
If it's on the desktop, click the desktop anywhere, to make sure nothing is selected, then just hit control+a, and you'll see the invisible folder has a selection border to it.
Any programmer, who read the MS documentation like for example "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces", in which it states: "Do not use the following reserved names for the name of a file: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, COM¹, COM², COM³, LPT0, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9, LPT¹, LPT², and LPT³. Also avoid these names followed immediately by an extension; for example, NUL.txt and NUL.tar.gz are both equivalent to NUL. For more information, see Namespaces." But that information is referenced by the MS documentation multiple times. Those are reserved names for default device handlers. You for example can use those devices in the console or in batch files (given they are fully defined, the devices are installed and their driver is loaded into memory), for redirecting in and output to the specific devices: CON (console), PRN (default printer), AUX (auxiliary port device), NUL(data sink; read returns 0 byte and returns success, write operations discard all data and return success), COM0 - COM³ (communication port device 0 - 12), LPT0-LPT³ (line print terminal device 0 to 12).
easy to figure out. command prompt, type DIR and look at the file sizes. the file names should be something along the line of "ALT+255(1)", "ALT +255(2)" etc... isolate the folder with file contents, since the rest should be empty. and then type DEL+"ALT+255*" hit ENTER. This would solve that problem.
@@captainvenom4377you dont. If you don't write anything the 'autocompletion' starts from empty string which makes it enumerate over every item in current location. However, you can't /just/ type cd and tab into it. The character is a hard space ("non-breaking space"), and if you just input "cd", both gets trimmed out and cd runs with no arguments, just printing current path. What you have to do is enclose the 255 with within a quotations, which preserve spaces in file names (just as you'd have to do with cd "New Folder")
Nope, that doesn't work., _unless_ you use a quotation mark: *cd "* and then hit tab. Using quotation marks you can type it yourself too - *cd ""* - and it works.
Best part is people doing genuinely bad things and hiding in a folder like this makes it SOOOOO easy to find at the forensic level, it’s like a giant “this is where I hide all the illegal shit” sign
Con is reserved for files being sent to a driver for a console device. If you did name a folder con, it would be sent to your console. PRN is printer as well.
You cannot use these in the Windows GUI because they are reserved for MS-DOS names, have system or device actions references so there are not really very technical reasons for it.
You can actually still reference it in cmd by literally just using the term: "Alt+255". Since the stuff cmd is built on didn't have the full unicode character list they just added them as the stated alt code.
You can make a folder named con but you have to use powershell. Explorer itself still does not allow it but the filesystem has been updated to permit it.
You used to be able to lock up a Telegaurd BBS if you uploaded any file named LPT1, COM1, etc. Reminds me a bit of that. My work around was to have a hidden files section that had all of the system devices already in it -- so it would say file already exists instead of people locking the thing up.
"It's kinda hard to notice" Nah, that'd be the first thing I'd notice. A blank spot in a list (and I'm always looking at the details list) with a date created? Sussssss.
You can something even better, if you rename a text file alt+255 and then also replace the .txt extension by alt+255, then the txt file just becomes a white blank page that's not usable unless you manually select "Open with Notepad". The cool thing is, if you rename the file with .txt, the file is back to normal and everything you saved in it is still there.
I don't consider that cool, and you only found that out now? All files are just text. So the contents don't change at all. Even with image files like `.png` or `.jpg`, have text, tho the text is weird random characters, when opened constructs the image in front of your eyes. Something that *I* consider cool is renaming a zip file with a custom extension. Then I have all my files in 1 file with a cool extension. Thats what JAR files use, if you change the extension to zip then you can see all the resources of the JAR.
@@mayb.developer.inactive I stopped reading after "I don't consider that cool" . Hope you had a great time typing wtv the hell that whole text is, cuz im not reading it. Cheers :D
@@mayb.developer.inactivesomething to keep in mind is that changing the extension (or file type) might actually damage the code and corrupt the file You may have not encountered this yet but it is possible so do not do this with your files that have important information in them without making a back up
You can make it hidden so it doesnt appear in explorer and since your filesystem is utf-8 but your cmd is cp850 you can give it characters that are not suported and create a folder only accsessabke by viewing hidden files or directly inputting the path in the run command window
@@PlaHiat3942 the NTFS filesystem namespace allows for any UTF-8 (technically UTF-16 but i dont think explorer or any other common program allows for that) characters - with a few exceptions - but the cmd at least with standard settings will not allow just any UTF-8 character. So the cmd is more limited than your filesystem
@shawnstafford7809In this scenario the folder is always there and clickable and is hidden but usable. By making it a hidden folder it would mean to access it you would have to I hide it each time. Say you want your “homework” folder hidden but useable, you could leave it in the corner of the desktop and it would be always accessible to you clicking it’s position, but no one else would know it’s there. TLDR easier to open the folder
Alt-255, or ASCII 255 points to a null ASCII character, so it should work on any system if you have a way of typing ascii codes. You should also be able to navigate to that directory in terminal by doing: cd “(Alt-255)” Of course, you wouldn’t type the parenthesis or anything, just use Alt-255 between the quotations.
Actually, you can make a file all those reserved names, you just can't do it through the Windows API. But... there are other ways to write to the filesystem without using the Windows API.
@@johndododoe1411 Using the unicode API functions is NOT the same thing. I've got a file on Windows called LPT: with the colon and everything. Using the standard ANSI character set. With the kernel Rtl functions you could probably write such a file anyway, but I'm unsure as I generally only use those for writing 0 into registry keys to make them unreadable by the registry editor.
Shhhhh... I do this ALL the time. It's how blocked files work and you can do SO much more than most people think and it's all documented too on the usual gobble-de-gook way that Microsoft documents Windows streams.
let me one up this: you can use python to force windows to create the file "con" (at the time i used javascript but i believe python will work) con is also a file that is hard to remove
If you want to REALLY make it hidden, then go into command line and give it the attributes +h +s to mark it as a system file! Now you need to enable view hidden files, then dig through the file explorer settings to uncheck the box to hide operating system files, which has its own big scary warning pop up to scare people away! And then you click on your invisible desktop folder!
still not hidden. you cant hide folder at all, not even under dos. But you can make them (almost) completely inaccessible unless you know the complete full path.
@@JoriDiculous It is too hidden! It is hidden unless you know of its existence and you know exactly where to look and what to do to access it! It is inaccessible through a command line, needs you to dig through file explorer settings and know which two settings to flip and even not be deterred by a big warning popup, and know exactly where the invisible nameless iconless folder is! I think that fits the definition of hidden!
@@JoriDiculous A) You need to either know the folder exists to think of doing that or get very lucky and randomly do that, and B) that won't work unless you dig through the file explorer settings and check the View Hidden Files box and uncheck the Hide Operating System Files box, and click yes on the warning popup. Because until you toggle both checkboxes, it will be 100% hidden, as in, you cannot see it or interact with it, click-dragging while those boxes are not toggled will not reveal it and it will not show up in any way in File Explorer.
i usually just name it ‘cache’ or something and throw it in some random folder so even if it is found nobody questions it and just thinks it’s a weird computer thing
The “homework” folder boutta become impenetrable
It has already been penetrated
Unlike the “homework” inside
I mean calling it “homework” technically wouldn’t be a lie 💀
@@ttalha08what if I do it at school?
@@Kilovotis 💀💀💀
It’s invisible till someone gets bored and starts playing with the blue selection square
I used to do that all the time as a kid
You could still see the blue square if you hover your cursor over it
Add password
I do this habitually while I’m sat at my computer talking to someone.
Or hits tab
For anyone who's wondering you cant name a file con or the other names, its because they want to have backwards compatible with older devices and programs. Tom Scott made a great video on it, would recomment checking it out
Created a folder named "con" on the icloud drive and now windows will complain when it updates the files
Love Tom's videos
CONsole
AUXillary
LPT = Line Printer
COMmunication (Serial Port)
etc...
@@WranornYep, a leftover from MSDOS 1.x not having a special name prefix or suffix for devices and \DEV\CON not catching on when it was optional in MSDOS 2.x . Thus every derived OS continues to check if the filename is a basic device name before looking at the disk . Colons in file names have a new cool function since 1993 .
@@sxnap3480hence that would not be backwards compatible. You disagreed then proceeded to show he was correct.
In CLI you can cd to it with
cd .\ \
as long as you're in the correct parent directory.
(note that space between the two backslashes is alt+255)
I think we can get rid of that dot
No we can't
I was wondering about that
@@fundamxd ofc you can't, the dot refers to the current directory
@@the1whoplayz I honestly don't know what happened up there, why did I say that we can get rid of the dot and how come I disagreed with myself, I simply don't get it, some questions just don't have answers.
Gotta get a beard to seem more trusty
😂
😂
Fr
Hi vsauce, Michael here
Lmeow
The homework folder is about to get an upgrade
Dawg 😂
Lol💀
💀
YURU YURI PFP??? AKARIN
Real
"Dad, why is your desktop screen have all blue highlighted squares?"
daddy is hiding porn ...gay porn
He’s hiding a lot
Work around, mutliple windows
It's definitely not a bunch of videos I downloaded from the dark web.
He's hiding the adoption papers
this + a bunch of subfolders that are all invisible aswell (only 1 is the right one) = a truly impenetrable safe space for a “collection” of sorts
Or just encrypt it and make it literally impenetrable
If you encase the Alt+255 in "Alt+255" it is accessible from DOS
Well yeah it just has no name, they don't see your desktop just your files
DOS?
@@a_man6094 Microsofts actual operating system
Fundamentally, some BIOS character codes had no equivalent in the ISO 8859-1 derived character set used by 16 bit Windows, thus making the old non-unicode file explorer fail to display file names with those characters . The non-unicode keyboard driver would give up trying to send those missing characters to programs at all, but did have ALT+0xxx to type in all the new characters that weren't in DOS .
whats DOS
are we all just screaming two in spanish
“oh I think that’s chuck!”
narrator: “that was in fact, not chuck”
I'm just imaging shrek saying this
Hahaha, it's not Chuck; it's me!
Haha…That’s what I was thinking. I mean, you and Chuck pretty much have the same…is it cadence?🤔 and delivery style? Kinda Cool. If I didn’t see the network Chuck emblem in the corner, I would still think this video was affiliated somehow. Lol 🤷🏻♂️. Maybe it’s just me trippin’. 😅 🤙👊🏼 Right on.
HE PUT CHUCK BODY LOCATION IN THE SECRET FOLDER
I thought he was making a joke about being on a first name basis with the FBI
ALT+255 used to be inaccessible in much older versions of windows. You could only access from DOS. I used to hide DOOM at my friends house as his mom would freak out about that game.
Lolz
you're the goat for that fr
Time comes when you grow up and put away childish things.
Like Windows...
Real men use Linux.
No exceptions.
@@Theineluctable_SOME_CANTdepends on what you need
@@n0tg lol...
Have a good 1...
I can have my secret invisible folder...
Ctrl+A: What? what did you say?! 😂
This guy has moved more in this short than I have all week
man's living on the john....
Hahaha I hear this a lot actually
@@alexmichaelwalkerat this point you should just be speaking sign language
He even managed to disappear and reappear!
That's kinda sad 😂
Finally I can keep people out of my “ homework” folder
AYOOO
Haha mine it “Taxes”
@@ramstacpthat's actually genius, nobody wanna look at data sheet 😂
Why the hell would you download porn
Hey there. Jesus loves you! Through Him is the only way to heaven! May God bless you. 😊
Alt + 2800 also creates a whitespace, which can be used for instances where alt + 255 might not work
The numbers overflow back to 0 after 255. So your alt + 2800 is simply alt + 240. As proof: if you do alt + 2870 this gives you a number "6". 2870 % 256 = 54. If you do alt + 54 this also gives the number "6".
@@reikooters I believe it is recognized as a different character though? For example, on discord I can send an en "empty" message containing only alt + 2800, but not alt + 255.
@@iannys2387 I wasn't saying 240 (or 2800 as you call it) and 255 are the same - I'm saying that the range is only between 0 to 255. So your 2800 is actually just 240. So you can type alt+240 (and any number +256 such as 496, or 752, etc) and all are the same character as what you call 2800
@@reikooters Ah my bad 😅
I tried naming a folder this and it’s a character that’s just 3 lines. Not invisible
MAN! THAT WAS DOPE! NEED MORE OF THESE❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
there's a horror story of a developer getting an error because they had a zero width white space character fucking up their code
Thanks for the new nightmare material, I won't be sleeping this week
that's what linters are for
that probably started the developers villian arc
Hell itself isnt as bad as this
Thankfully basically any decent ide will flag things like that now, as it's so rare you'd ever have on in there intentionally
Keep in mind this usually doesn't work with the line of numbers above the letter keys; it's for the number pad that _doesn't_ come with every computer. If yours doesn't have one, you'll have to name your "special" folder something like "Tax Stuff" like everyone else.
On screen keyboard
or just copy it from a website
Computers and keyboards are different things, you can just get a full size keyboard.
copy the hangul filler from internet
@@cleveruseridyes I assume this guy doesn’t know the difference between a desktop PC and laptop
He looks like the geoguesser
I get this so often!
sounds similar too
Wut?
Rainbolt
@@beanbobbean6393yeah that’s what I said, isn’t it crazy resemblance
Being 50 years old working with computers since the C64 I can say I find these specific videos quite informative for those who don't know. Old fart like me roll our eyes and think how can anyone not know this. God bless you.
Hey! 50 is not old.
@@thomaskeets3194 I keep forgetting I turned 51 last month.
TIL everyone has a "homework" folder and not "New Folder" 5 times in itself, or simply "stuff."
I once figured out how to make a directory junction that redirected to another folder, but BELOW that junction was actual data, like, as if it was a folder. How did I get to the data? Remove the junction. There was no other way; the data was just orphaned otherwise. Sadly, this was only possible in Windows XP, MS seems to have repaired that issue.
nah, mines a lot more hidden than that
I just put mine in the "PerfLogs" since nothing really happens in there 🤷
@@Mavendow"issue" sounds more like a feature to me😂
I’ve used stuff lmao
Bro emotes like a character from a 90's Disney special.
this is space:
and this is the character:
you also cant name a folder space
Yeah... A bit excessive
Bro think he anime character
He definitely doesn't have any bills to pay
am i cooked? i emote like this
Mom can we get tom Scott?
Tom Scott at home:
Bros Ohio Tom Scott
@@nomz8810ohio isn’t funny anymore
@@sheepstone23fr..
@@sheepstone23never was
@@sheepstone23The era of ohio has long since passed, the age of New Hampshire is upon us
i have now reached the pinnacle of civilization. all the folders are belong me!
First I was like “woah, Chuck shaved his beard.” Then the guy started talking and I was like “woah, Chucks voice shaved its beard too.” Then I realized it wasn’t Chuck.
Yoooh, this cracked me up😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂😂😂
@@isaackvasager9957his manner of talking sounds same
a bunch of channels are mimicking chuck almost exactly now
He really changed after he sold his establishment to sneed
Schlatt's folder of images from the 90's will be impossible for the FBI to ever find..
Growing up, my buddy had an early mac, he had a folder on his desktop containing a grid of folders, each of those with still more folders. If you clicked on the wrong sequence of folders, it instantly shut down the computer. I bet you can imagine what sort of files were in there 😂.
Oneth
Either a techy person or someone that should be locked up
You can fool everyone but God man, he dies for all sins, rose again and those who believed in him and accept his grace get to be with him or many choose to be without and come to destruction
@@SpiritSpeaker01 No thanks
@@tehsmaonly your eternal loss….. no big deal right ?
dude all of this works.. man this short is the most legit thing i've ever watched..
My " Study material " gotta be Invisible now
😂😂
Thanks dude this is the best way for saving my *ehem* 30 GB of Biology videos without anyone knowing
30k pictures or about 40 hours of nonstop video is crazy
@@KuulMeln ye
@@KuulMeln it depends on the resolution
30?! ROOKIE NUMBERS. I got at least 84 GBs!
@@ego5809hah pathetic i got 69000 peta bytes
Instructions unclear, now serving 4 life sentence in federal prison
Caaaaaarrrrll what did you dooooo????
@@participatoroftomfoolery Sacrificed donlad Trump parents to the Internet Gods in enchage for faster WiFi
Cp
Explain what happened Carl!
@@ReySchultz121 Sacrificed orphans, nothing special
This is actually perfect for people who want to fully display their background while also have quick access storage😅
The following folder names are also not allowed as these are reserved for system tasks: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8,
COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9.
I think you can create one using a network route. Create a network share, open it and create a PRN folder inside.
DOS legacy
Pretty sure there's also COM0 and LPT0
all for external devices right?
that PRN folder sounding suspicious
Dude looks like if the geoguesser guy was sober
Holy shit I can’t unsee it 😭😭
I literally checked the comments to see if anyone else thought they were brothers
@@isaacwest3625lol me too bro
legit
LMAO This is one of the best I've heard
Explaining what he didnt:
In Windows operating systems, you cannot name a folder (or file) with certain reserved device names, including "CON," "AUX," "NUL," "COM1" through "COM9," "LPT1" through "LPT9," and a few others. These names are reserved because they have historical significance and are associated with various input/output devices and system components. Using these names as folder or file names could lead to conflicts with system operations and cause issues.
For example, "CON" is associated with the console input and output, "AUX" with auxiliary devices, and "NUL" is a reserved name for the null device. Similarly, "COM5" refers to a communication port, and "LPT1" refers to the first parallel port.
Windows enforces these restrictions to ensure system stability and prevent unintended problems that could occur if these reserved names were used for folder or file names.
To avoid issues, choose different names for your folders or files that don't conflict with these reserved names.
Exactly, Tom Scott already made a great video on this years ago. Is this the best content NC can come up with?
I assume the conflict would be, for example if you're on the C drive in terminal, typing CON could either mean the CON folder in the current directory, or the "CON" device. If relative paths were not a thing this wouldn't be an issue
So why not PRN😗
@@ticos1235 No, you cannot name a folder "PRN" in Windows. "PRN" is a reserved device name associated with the printer, and using it as a folder name could lead to conflicts with the system's printing functionality. It's advisable to choose a different name for your folder to avoid potential issues.
@@Graftedsunlight that’s actually interesting lol. I would expect something like “PRT” as printer, not PRN.
What Lil aggy doin when there's no sekiro 2 😭😭
The technical details are the only reason I am here.
The reason is because those names he listed correspond to Windows components. If you go to print management and click "Ports", you'll see several ports with those names.
Having a folder with that name would cause windows to get confused
@@SoleFernit goes way farther back. those were all devices in DOS and would be addressable directly by using those names in commands.
to add to the foray, backwards compatibility. a relic from the DOS days.
@@0x5DASay hi to Shadow 🐕
Its fake
The homework folder is getting a major upgrade. Chuck=*Did you know you can't name a folder con*
Man discovers Tom Scott video from 3 years ago:
The guy who sings Today?
Exactly, I heard that first sentence and went STRAIGHT to the comments
Hahaha literally. Tom Scott is the GOAT
Folder: *sticks out like a sore thumb in explorer*
Him: "it's kinda hard to notice"
To be fair if you change the "sort by" to be reverse alphabetical, in a big folder it does keep itself pretty hidden if you're just quickly scrolling through.
neat trick, however the "invisible" icon doesnt work. as soon as you move the mouse, click, or mouse over it, it shows up as a black square. the only way to make it invisble again, is to go back and re-select the invisible icon. and even then it sometimes doesnt work and stays as a visible black square.
so just hide the invisible folder in explorer
2 of the 3 incisible options turned black for me and 1 stayed invisible
Yup, same for me. It used to work in older versions of Windows tho
For those wondering how to type it, look for the numpad (it is on the far right of your keyboard. btw some computers may not have it) and you wanna press Num Lock. Then, hold down Alt, press 2 then press 5 twice. Then, let go. It may look like a space, but it is invisible character. Now type that into a folder and there u go
ÿÿ
Cant do on laptop
If it's on the desktop, click the desktop anywhere, to make sure nothing is selected, then just hit control+a, and you'll see the invisible folder has a selection border to it.
ALT + 0160 also creates an invisible character similar to ALT + 255
Wonder who figured out you can’t name a folder “prn”😂
It actually stands for printer
someone that wanted to make folder of printers but "printer" was too long and windows shortens it to PRN so they tried it
p_rn
Any programmer, who read the MS documentation like for example "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces", in which it states:
"Do not use the following reserved names for the name of a file:
CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, COM¹, COM², COM³, LPT0, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9, LPT¹, LPT², and LPT³. Also avoid these names followed immediately by an extension; for example, NUL.txt and NUL.tar.gz are both equivalent to NUL. For more information, see Namespaces."
But that information is referenced by the MS documentation multiple times. Those are reserved names for default device handlers.
You for example can use those devices in the console or in batch files (given they are fully defined, the devices are installed and their driver is loaded into memory), for redirecting in and output to the specific devices:
CON (console), PRN (default printer), AUX (auxiliary port device), NUL(data sink; read returns 0 byte and returns success, write operations discard all data and return success), COM0 - COM³ (communication port device 0 - 12), LPT0-LPT³ (line print terminal device 0 to 12).
Hat about the invisible character. Doesn't work for me on win11
all fun in games until someone makes minesweeper with your folders
easy to figure out. command prompt, type DIR and look at the file sizes. the file names should be something along the line of "ALT+255(1)", "ALT +255(2)" etc... isolate the folder with file contents, since the rest should be empty. and then type DEL+"ALT+255*" hit ENTER. This would solve that problem.
The homework folder is about to become invisible. Chuck=*Did you know you can't name a folder con*
bro fell off lmaoooo
I REALLY want to show this to my Cybersecurity instructor
Sadly sometimes that invisible folder will replace the icon with a black square
black background
If you press tab in terminal it autocompletes current directory items. That way you can access it
it wouldnt work because you have to type something to have it auto complete
@@captainvenom4377you dont. If you don't write anything the 'autocompletion' starts from empty string which makes it enumerate over every item in current location.
However, you can't /just/ type cd and tab into it. The character is a hard space ("non-breaking space"), and if you just input "cd", both gets trimmed out and cd runs with no arguments, just printing current path.
What you have to do is enclose the 255 with within a quotations, which preserve spaces in file names (just as you'd have to do with cd "New Folder")
@@captainvenom4377no you dont
Nope, that doesn't work., _unless_ you use a quotation mark: *cd "* and then hit tab.
Using quotation marks you can type it yourself too - *cd ""* - and it works.
Imagine your parent find it and they like "My son is a hacker"
I love this channel
ALT+255 makes a completly invisible charcter
Space: wtf did i do
you cant name a file just space
@@jorgetami9070yes you can
@@jorgetami9070Thank you.
I don’t know why but the editing was funny af
That's thanks to "MyCool", one of our editors! He's the man
Imagine your mother walks in and presses Ctrl+A
Best part is people doing genuinely bad things and hiding in a folder like this makes it SOOOOO easy to find at the forensic level, it’s like a giant “this is where I hide all the illegal shit” sign
That FBI open up is cream 😂
you mean scream?
@@zedhow431 Haha.. it can be that as well
@@Aquabyte nahhh brooo 😭😭
The fbi knows this trick and my coworkers told me they found his files even after he did this
No way people are saying this now 😂
Finally i don't need to hide my homework under the futanari folder
i wrong you got it the think way around
@@Maraien🤯
Your goals are beyond our understanding
crazy ngl
Con is reserved for files being sent to a driver for a console device. If you did name a folder con, it would be sent to your console. PRN is printer as well.
I thought PRN was some… other thing..
I can’t remember why AUX is blocked though. 😞
@@desktop-iniI believe it's shortened for Auxiliary. Possibly to do with audio output
You mean your handheld??
Out of all the LPTs bro woke up and chose to say “LPT3” mad respect bro
Time to update my secret study material
These tricks were very famous at the time of windows XP. When I was a kid.
You cannot use these in the Windows GUI because they are reserved for MS-DOS names, have system or device actions references so there are not really very technical reasons for it.
You can actually still reference it in cmd by literally just using the term: "Alt+255". Since the stuff cmd is built on didn't have the full unicode character list they just added them as the stated alt code.
I love the videos u guys make
i watch all your videos with a coffee
You can make a folder named con but you have to use powershell. Explorer itself still does not allow it but the filesystem has been updated to permit it.
You used to be able to lock up a Telegaurd BBS if you uploaded any file named LPT1, COM1, etc. Reminds me a bit of that. My work around was to have a hidden files section that had all of the system devices already in it -- so it would say file already exists instead of people locking the thing up.
i’m gonna use this to make my desktop screen look more organized
speech therapy is a wonderful thing these days
All fun and games until you ctrl + a on desktop
*magicccc*
nothing happened. The alt255 doesn't work either.
wdym? can u explain further?
@@speake7777777
@@speake7777777gotta do it on the numeric pad, not the number on top of your keyboard
@@AwsmOceanohh
"It's kinda hard to notice"
Nah, that'd be the first thing I'd notice. A blank spot in a list (and I'm always looking at the details list) with a date created? Sussssss.
NAHHHH NO WAY BRO MADE THAT 9/11 JOKE OUTTA NOWHERE 💀
There was a 911 joke?
@@snicker4237 look at the file dates/times at the end
@@newlazer8087that's 8/11 then 9/12 I don't think anything you picked up on was intentional
Is he talking or avoiding mosquitos 😂😂😂
Finally some NetworkChuck lore
… the ultimate homework folder has been created
Chuck=*Did you know you can't name a folder con*
Me=*Cond...*
PRN hmm I think I'm to innocent💀
i swear to god i was just thinking of this video a few days ago, and it comes back on my feed….
You can something even better, if you rename a text file alt+255 and then also replace the .txt extension by alt+255, then the txt file just becomes a white blank page that's not usable unless you manually select "Open with Notepad". The cool thing is, if you rename the file with .txt, the file is back to normal and everything you saved in it is still there.
I don't consider that cool, and you only found that out now?
All files are just text. So the contents don't change at all. Even with image files like `.png` or `.jpg`, have text, tho the text is weird random characters, when opened constructs the image in front of your eyes.
Something that *I* consider cool is renaming a zip file with a custom extension. Then I have all my files in 1 file with a cool extension. Thats what JAR files use, if you change the extension to zip then you can see all the resources of the JAR.
@@mayb.developer.inactive I stopped reading after "I don't consider that cool" . Hope you had a great time typing wtv the hell that whole text is, cuz im not reading it.
Cheers :D
@@ray_gaming7 It was just saying how image files also have text in them. And no mater what file type it is, it doesn't change the contents.
@@mayb.developer.inactive Cool
@@mayb.developer.inactivesomething to keep in mind is that changing the extension (or file type) might actually damage the code and corrupt the file
You may have not encountered this yet but it is possible so do not do this with your files that have important information in them without making a back up
This....this is absolutely brilliant
You can make it hidden so it doesnt appear in explorer and since your filesystem is utf-8 but your cmd is cp850 you can give it characters that are not suported and create a folder only accsessabke by viewing hidden files or directly inputting the path in the run command window
You mean, the text encoding instead of filesystem?
UTF-8 has all the characters, CP1252 doesn't
@@PlaHiat3942 the NTFS filesystem namespace allows for any UTF-8 (technically UTF-16 but i dont think explorer or any other common program allows for that) characters - with a few exceptions - but the cmd at least with standard settings will not allow just any UTF-8 character. So the cmd is more limited than your filesystem
@@tsernitos Try to CHCP to UTF-8, no?
I remember doing it back in windows xp days...didn't knew you still can
His movements are more attractive then actual content
for those who type alt+255 below function key👇, it only work in numpad😃
It didn't work it for me even in numpad
@@ThaRePmake sure numlock is turned on so it uses the numbers
@shawnstafford7809In this scenario the folder is always there and clickable and is hidden but usable. By making it a hidden folder it would mean to access it you would have to I hide it each time.
Say you want your “homework” folder hidden but useable, you could leave it in the corner of the desktop and it would be always accessible to you clicking it’s position, but no one else would know it’s there.
TLDR easier to open the folder
@shawnstafford7809That works.. but only if the person looking for your homework folder doesn't know how to enable show hidden files.
@shawnstafford7809because everyone knows about "Show hidden files and folders"
Finally Bernard Hackwell makes an appearance
it is so useful cuz now I can hide my animes on my desktop without anyone realizing it
hahaha
Who is this boy, is he Chuck's brother?
It's like a b movie of all the same mannerisms
@@acedanger49 :D
Son?
@@petraspetraitis3355 I do not think so.
I'll definitely forget when I've hidden my corn collection 😂
Alt-255, or ASCII 255 points to a null ASCII character, so it should work on any system if you have a way of typing ascii codes.
You should also be able to navigate to that directory in terminal by doing:
cd “(Alt-255)”
Of course, you wouldn’t type the parenthesis or anything, just use Alt-255 between the quotations.
This brings back memories from 8th standard. Used to challenge other kids to create a folder named CON 😂
Actually, you can make a file all those reserved names, you just can't do it through the Windows API. But... there are other ways to write to the filesystem without using the Windows API.
You can use the command
md \\.\%userprofile%\desktop\com
And
Rd \\.\%userprofile%\desktop\com
To delete it
Use the UNICODE part of the API . CP437 char 255 is U+00A0, but if the story is true, the mapping to CP1252 character 160 wasn't always implemented .
@@johndododoe1411 Using the unicode API functions is NOT the same thing. I've got a file on Windows called LPT: with the colon and everything. Using the standard ANSI character set. With the kernel Rtl functions you could probably write such a file anyway, but I'm unsure as I generally only use those for writing 0 into registry keys to make them unreadable by the registry editor.
True, they're blocked in os level, not fs level. So linux or wsl, or there is a way in powershell i think. Its poaasble
Up Next: Hiding files via NTFS Alternate Data Streams.
I remember an older book from school talking about saving files as FAT32 since it doesn't support this.
Shhhhh... I do this ALL the time. It's how blocked files work and you can do SO much more than most people think and it's all documented too on the usual gobble-de-gook way that Microsoft documents Windows streams.
"Don't give away all of our secrets, Gary!!
Most men actually knew about PRN.
hahahaha
😂
Ok, sexist.
bro you are 2 and a guy@@c26f
@@c26f we do not care
oh boy, a kid just found out about alt characters. it's like an angel getting wings.
When you learn something in school, and you have to run to the Internet real fast to share it.
I'm pretty sure you can enter it through the terminal, just wrap the character in double quotes.
Really 😮?
The "PRN" is a very concerning reason to not work ngl 💀💀
I think it stands for printer or something
Por-
@@A_Catholic_Scotsmanwhat's the big deal about saying porn?
@@NoGoatsNoGlory. I never said there was
There's nothing wrong with having a folder dedicated to Potential Resource Networks.
Used to have this trick at least 12 years ago
Im gonna make invisible folders with text to look like someone somehow input text onto the screen 💀
let me one up this: you can use python to force windows to create the file "con" (at the time i used javascript but i believe python will work)
con is also a file that is hard to remove
If you want to REALLY make it hidden, then go into command line and give it the attributes +h +s to mark it as a system file! Now you need to enable view hidden files, then dig through the file explorer settings to uncheck the box to hide operating system files, which has its own big scary warning pop up to scare people away! And then you click on your invisible desktop folder!
still not hidden. you cant hide folder at all, not even under dos. But you can make them (almost) completely inaccessible unless you know the complete full path.
@@JoriDiculous It is too hidden! It is hidden unless you know of its existence and you know exactly where to look and what to do to access it! It is inaccessible through a command line, needs you to dig through file explorer settings and know which two settings to flip and even not be deterred by a big warning popup, and know exactly where the invisible nameless iconless folder is! I think that fits the definition of hidden!
@@Damariobros point your mouse to desktop, left-click and drag.
@@JoriDiculous A) You need to either know the folder exists to think of doing that or get very lucky and randomly do that, and B) that won't work unless you dig through the file explorer settings and check the View Hidden Files box and uncheck the Hide Operating System Files box, and click yes on the warning popup. Because until you toggle both checkboxes, it will be 100% hidden, as in, you cannot see it or interact with it, click-dragging while those boxes are not toggled will not reveal it and it will not show up in any way in File Explorer.
i usually just name it ‘cache’ or something and throw it in some random folder so even if it is found nobody questions it and just thinks it’s a weird computer thing
genius