Windows 10: Cannot Rename Folder with a Dot (".")

Hello! I have a kind of unusual problem. I have a couple folders with music in them, but the albums have dots in their titles. The two issues I'm currently having are with "I Love You." by the Neighbourhood and "Promises Ltd." by Promises Ltd.

I've tried renaming them through CMD with no results. I've been told to use their 8.3 filenames, but when I tried doing that, it was just a blank space where the name was supposed to be.

Not only that, but I cannot do anything to the files themselves. If I try opening the folders, Windows says their locations are "unavailable." Very frustrating.

:)

 

" SOFTWARE UPDATE FAILED "

SO HERE'S THE LINK TO THAT PIC

http://i26.tinypic.com/2ihbdco.jpg

CAN U PLZ CHECK IT ACTUALLY I HAVE USED THE NOKIA SOFTWARE UPDATER B4 ... BUT I DONT KNW WHY I M GETTING THIS ERROR NOW

 

" SOFTWARE UPDATE FAILED "

i have installed windows xp sp2

previously i was using windows media center i thought i might b facing this probs due to that but then i changed it to windows xp ! n moreover i have also shown to nokia service center executives but they were not having the latest updates available ......
my pc suite is showing that new update version of firmware is available but i cudnt download it

oh gawd wat to do ?

i tried in another pc then again i got an error u need to have minimum 256 ram

please cant it b rectified ? there must b any solution to this probs please help me guyz

god bless all of u thanx

 

It is one of the basic rules of the windows file system that you cannot use certain "system" characters in the creation of a filename things such as the \ > < $ and other characters have special meanings to the operating system

The . can be used in the folder name as a separator as in ... this.is.new ... but should not be used at the end of a name as it confuses the OS into looking for the next part of the name

I have many thousands of tracks in many albums digitised and unfortunately you have to compromise - some older systems did not allow spaces which had to be replaced with something else - This_is_New.MP3

 

Interesting. How can I rename them, however? Windows (for whatever reason) will not let me rename them to something else.

 

files with to windows, "Illegal" filenames from other operating systems cannot be read or manipulated within Windows easily

It may involve using a linux or other OS converting them to the Old Dos 8.3 system using special software and then renaming them in windows to something more human readable.

By far the easiest method is to re-acquire the files from source within Windows so that the meet standards

 

The dot as last character in file or folder name tells Windows that what comes thereafter is an extension. It confuses Windows if no extension exists.

I have not tested this but theoretically, if you select to show file extensions in File Explorer, you should then be able to rename a file or a folder with dot as last character and no extension simply by removing the dot. Worth to try.

 

Seems I cannot test this, Windows does not let me create / rename a file or folder so that name would end with a dot.

Try what I told in my previous post, show file name extensions and then rename problem albums adding an extension (folders can have extensions, too). For instance, rename "Promises Ltd." to "Promises Ltd.xyz", then rename it again removing the extension and the dot.

It might just work.

 

koukaclover, did you try renaming with * at the end?

 

In command prompt, have you tried enclosing the old folder name in quotes?

 

Download 7zip and browse to the file. There you can rename it in 7zip.

 

Interesting:

Code: C:\Users\John>md "Docements.temp.test.folder" C:\Users\John>dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is B6BA-9DF7 Directory of C:\Users\John 11/18/2017 02:59 PM <DIR> . 11/18/2017 02:59 PM <DIR> .. 11/16/2017 01:55 PM <DIR> 3D Objects 11/16/2017 01:55 PM <DIR> Contacts 11/17/2017 03:44 PM <DIR> Desktop 11/18/2017 02:59 PM <DIR> Docements.temp.test.folder 11/16/2017 02:15 PM <JUNCTION> Documents [D:\John\Documents] 11/16/2017 02:16 PM <JUNCTION> Downloads [D:\John\Downloads] 11/17/2017 06:25 PM <DIR> Favorites 11/16/2017 01:58 PM <DIR> Links 11/16/2017 02:23 PM <JUNCTION> Music [D:\John\Music] 11/16/2017 02:23 PM <JUNCTION> Pictures [D:\John\Pictures] 11/16/2017 01:55 PM <DIR> Saved Games 11/16/2017 01:56 PM <DIR> Searches 11/16/2017 02:22 PM <JUNCTION> Videos [D:\John\Videos] 0 File(s) 0 bytes 15 Dir(s) 219,543,801,856 bytes free[/quote] I'm only having issues when the folder name ends with a period with nothing behind it. In fact, nothing will let me create or rename the folder to a name with a period at the end and nothing following it. But periods in the middle don't seem to affect anything at all.

 

I'm only having issues when the folder name ends with a period with nothing behind it. In fact, nothing will let me create or rename the folder to a name with a period at the end and nothing following it. But periods in the middle don't seem to affect anything at all.[/quote] Exactly. I've tried with 7zip (just before reddice posted his suggestion). But by extraction system renames that folder. to folder_ Have to be done with different operating system

 

IIRC the ability to use the period in a file/folder name came in when the character limit was raised from the initial 8.3 system to the current 128 Character limit, prior to this the only period allowed was the one that proceeds the file extension which is still an issue as it prevents the use of period as the last character.

I think this issue is one for a live linux setup, as linux is derived from UNIX which has always treated the Period as a standard Character so renaming to a standard Windows 8.3 setup, (or even a valid windows Long file name), should be a simple task

 

Install Cygwin. It's emulates Linux on Windows in a completely native fashion. And it's free.

In Explorer I created files and folders ending with dot. Afterwards Explorer would not let me rename them. That's the problem you're having. It's very real. And very annoying.

But a command-line shell (bash) with Cygwin had no such problem. Rename folder "x." to "anything-else" by typing: Code: mv x. anything-else[/quote] Done.

Use Cygwin bash to fix your problem.
Then use bash to replace CMD entirely.

CMD is surely the world's worst command-line shell language. MS introduced it in 1981, and it's based on its predecessor from the CP/M operating systems of the early 70s. Totally obsolete. And disgraceful.

Get bash. You'll never look back.