Searching, moving, copying, etc files with ampersand ( & )..

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

I often want to do things with files that have an "&" character
in the file name, but haven't been able to figure out how to do
so with either the command prompt or Explorer.

For example, searching for things like *&*.* or *^&*.* with
either Explorer or the Dir command shows ALL files, not just the
ones with an ampersand in the filename.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

Rob Stow <rob.stow@shaw.ca> wrote:
> I often want to do things with files that have an "&" character
> in the file name, but haven't been able to figure out how to do
> so with either the command prompt or Explorer.

> For example, searching for things like *&*.* or *^&*.* with
> either Explorer or the Dir command shows ALL files, not just the
> ones with an ampersand in the filename.

DIR *^&* works for me, as does DIR *^&*.*

--
Gary L. Smith gls432@yahoo.com
Columbus, Ohio

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

Gary Smith wrote:

> Rob Stow <rob.stow@shaw.ca> wrote:
>
>>I often want to do things with files that have an "&" character
>>in the file name, but haven't been able to figure out how to do
>>so with either the command prompt or Explorer.
>
>
>>For example, searching for things like *&*.* or *^&*.* with
>>either Explorer or the Dir command shows ALL files, not just the
>>ones with an ampersand in the filename.
>
>
> DIR *^&* works for me, as does DIR *^&*.*
>

Both of these also work for me (home machine NT4.0 using Win2000 cmd.exe).

--
Phil Robyn
Univ. of California, Berkeley

u n z i p m y a d d r e s s t o s e n d e - m a i l

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

Gary Smith wrote:
> Rob Stow <rob.stow@shaw.ca> wrote:
>
>>I often want to do things with files that have an "&" character
>>in the file name, but haven't been able to figure out how to do
>>so with either the command prompt or Explorer.
>
>
>>For example, searching for things like *&*.* or *^&*.* with
>>either Explorer or the Dir command shows ALL files, not just the
>>ones with an ampersand in the filename.
>
>
> DIR *^&* works for me, as does DIR *^&*.*
>

Did a reboot and Dir *^&*.* started working for me - for a while.
Eventually it stopped working and I rebooted again.

Seems that searching for something with ^& in it with Explorer
doesn't work - and as soon as I do a search with ^& in Explorer,
I lose the ability to search for ^& in cmd.exe until I reboot.
I am at a loss to explain why cmd.exe should care the least bit
about what has been done with Explorer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

Rob Stow <rob.stow@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Gary Smith wrote:
>> Rob Stow <rob.stow@shaw.ca> wrote:
>>
>>>I often want to do things with files that have an "&" character
>>>in the file name, but haven't been able to figure out how to do
>>>so with either the command prompt or Explorer.
>>
>>
>>>For example, searching for things like *&*.* or *^&*.* with
>>>either Explorer or the Dir command shows ALL files, not just the
>>>ones with an ampersand in the filename.
>>
>>
>> DIR *^&* works for me, as does DIR *^&*.*
>>

> Did a reboot and Dir *^&*.* started working for me - for a while.
> Eventually it stopped working and I rebooted again.

> Seems that searching for something with ^& in it with Explorer
> doesn't work - and as soon as I do a search with ^& in Explorer,
> I lose the ability to search for ^& in cmd.exe until I reboot.
> I am at a loss to explain why cmd.exe should care the least bit
> about what has been done with Explorer.

In Explorer, searching for *&* or just & gets me 47 hits, including the
two dummy files I created expecially for the test. Searching for *^&* or
just ^& finds nothing, which is what I expect since ^ is an escape
specific to CMD and has no special meaning to Explorer. In fact,
searching for ^ in Explorer gets me three hits, all shortcuts whose names
begin with "^ ".

Running these tests in Explorer had no effect on searching in cmd.

--
Gary L. Smith gls432@yahoo.com
Columbus, Ohio