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I can't delete a file (in Windows) named 'nul' that I created! How can I?

Some filenames are easy to create, but Windows won't let you delete them: NUL, CON, etc. The easiest solution is to use the \\. syntax when refering to those files. Like so:

ren \\.c:\path\to\file\nul. dummy_name
del dummy_name

Please note the use of the full path to the file.

Lately, I've had to walk someone through the phone with a similiar problem, but now the syntax is \\.\path and not \\.path, like so:

ren \\.\c:\path\to\file\nul. dummy_name

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