Bad Filenames

[ChrisGreaves]

Is this the correct forum? It is not so much a question of VBA as in Windows criticism of file names

BadFileName.png

RunTime Error RTE 52 Bad FileName
This puzzles me. I suspect that the problem is the question-mark symbols in the file name.

I have loaded a string array of filenames from my hard drive and am now processing those names.
The file in question is an HTML file; Geoff sent me an email and I saved the email to disc, as I do every day.

Windows7 saved the file to my hard drive in 20th January this year.
Windows7 used the strings of characters from FireFox browser (File, saveAs) to create the file.
Win7 didn’t object to the question-marks then.
Why should it care now?

I can fix the file name – that’s not a problem.

I can’t understand how Win7 lets this slip through at the time of Saving, only to opbject months later at the time of use.

I imagine too that Win7 has been seeing the filename in all sorts of situations over the past six months – backing up, defragmenting, building an Index and so on.

Thanks
Chris

[HansV]

It's weird that Windows allowed saving the file with a ? in the filename in the first place - if you try to do so manually, you get a popup:

S2272.png

Apparently it slipped through, but as you have found, it causes problems.

[ChrisGreaves]

Apparently it slipped through, but as you have found, it causes problems.

Thanks Hans, for the confirmation.
This is not a big problem for me locally.
I wonder (heh heh!) if anyone who is running the Latest Windows cares to try it:-
Send yourself and emaIL with question marks (or other illegal characters) in the Subject field, then save that Email from a browser in full web format.

Just curious right now.
Chris

[HansV]

When I do so from IE11 on Windows 10, the question mark is automatically omitted from the file name. If I add the ? manually, the file doesn't save.

[ChrisGreaves]

When I do so from IE11 on Windows 10, the question mark is automatically omitted from the file name. If I add the ? manually, the file doesn't save.

OK. Thanks Hans.
My guess then is that this was some sort of flaw in Win7 that has been fixed now.
Cheers
Chris

[John Gray]

Perhaps Windows is taking a moral stance on the matter, and rejects your luke-warm Happy Christmas message?