Bob Meets World

« Look what Intel got me for my Birthday! | Home | This article has moved »

Bet you can’t do this for $25

By admin | March 14, 2007

I will give $25 to the first person that can show me a screenshot with a folder on their windows desktop with the name “con”

Goodluck :)

-update-  We have a Winner!

Here’s a screenshot of the Paypal details for paying the first person to show me a screenshot as promised :)

paid

 Matt Pennig says:
March 14th, 2007 at 1:48 pm e

Here it is, as requested. A folder on my windows desktop named “con”:

http://chipt.com/uploads/con_on_desktop.jpg

I accept PayPal :)

 

Oh, and if you liked this post, subscribe to my full rss feed to get more of the same every day from bobmeetsworld.com for free :)

Share This

Don`t want to miss a thing? Just subscribe to the full RSS feed :)!

Topics: weird, personal, random-thoughts |

97 Responses to “Bet you can’t do this for $25”

  1. Make Money Online at Cash Quests Says:
    November 30th, 1999 at 12:00 am

    links from Technorati

  2. BobMeetsWorld.com Says:
    January 1st, 1970 at 1:00 am

    links from Technoration the 14th of March, roughly 90 days ago and so far it has made me about $37,00 which I can’t convert into cash because there’s a $100,00 payout limit. Nearly half of that amount was made on the first day, when one of my articles got on the frontpage of reddit

  3. Mr KnowItAll Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

    THE REAS ON IS THIS……..CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9 can be more too.
    are all Windows reserved device names from the early days of DOS.
    There is a way you can make a folder but i dont know if it can be put on a website.
    No one gets your money..LOL

  4. Matt Pennig Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    Here it is, as requested. A folder on my windows desktop named “con”:

    http://chipt.com/uploads/con_on_desktop.jpg

    I accept PayPal :)

  5. mh1 Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:00 pm

    Hello,
    I have created a screenshot with a folder named “con” on my windows desktop at http://matkelly.com/conss.png . Please e-mail for contact information regarding to where the check should be sent.

  6. Matt Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:02 pm

    The link is to a JPG of the desktop. As you can tell, though, it is a non-English version of Windows (Japanese version).

  7. Jacob Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:06 pm

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/13411297@N00/421066897/

    there ya go.

  8. Peter Crabtree Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:08 pm

    How’s this?

    (And before you ask, that’s a totally unaltered screenshot.)

  9. David Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    That is bizarre. What’s going on?

  10. DT Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    http://i11.tinypic.com/2mest3t.jpg

    It’s labeld con

    Do I win? ;)

  11. Ram Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    I bet you $100 if you could create folders with names “aux” or “prn”

  12. DrBob Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pm

    You can do it by renaming a folder to something like ‘con and then replacing the ‘ with a zero-space unicode char
    (right click while editing name)…. Sitting on my desktop now, But I’m too lazy to submit image…

    DrBob.

  13. Jure Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pm

    This is due to the fact that con stands for console. Try copy con >> foo.txt

    Whatever you type (finish by ctrl-break) will be copied into the file.

  14. marc Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:21 pm

    also try it with:
    CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL

  15. betaray Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    You also can’t do lpt1 or nul (amongst others I imagine). I’ve got a Unix box running samba and when I create directories with these names and look at on my XP box they end up being things like LK8OWQ~K. Interestingly if you use the common file open dialog to open a file like this it actually gives you an error message, “This file name is a reserved device name”, but if you try to create something like con.xxx you get “Access denied”.

    Looks like this dates back to DOS 1.0: http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/10/22/55388.aspx

    I wonder if a Vista user could collect your $25.

  16. mellerbeck Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:25 pm

    Ha ha thats so weird, Does it count if I create it with an ALT code 255 after it? I’m sure it doesn’t :-)

  17. Greg Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:26 pm

    Any DOS device name will behave the same. PRN, LPT1 NUL etc.

  18. gabe Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

  19. Cristian Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:28 pm

    Here it is: http://softdot.ro/ss.gif

  20. John Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:31 pm

    Ok, but you first - $50 if you make one for “lpt1″

  21. Brent Ashley Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:31 pm

    http://www.ashleyit.com/files/condir.jpg

  22. Barry Freed Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
  23. DougBTX Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

    —– spoiler warning ——
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -

    Open up a command prompt window, cd to C:/Documents And Settings//Desktop and enter the command:

    mkdir “con\”

    This will make an empty directory. You can use the same syntax to make nestled directories, ie: mkdir “con\subfolder”

    http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitledoh6.jpg

  24. Wodow Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

    No screenshot (because my desktop is a mess!), but you can do it by running the following

    mkdir \\.\”c:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Desktop”\con

    where “USERNAME” is replaced by your logon name (or whatever your Documents and Settings directory is called).

    Do I win :-)?

    Wodow

  25. Nathan Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

    I have a jpeg for you. you can send the money to me via paypal. :-D

  26. Wodow Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:41 pm

    To undo: replace “mkdir” with “rmdir” in the above.

    Wodow

  27. Juan Aguilar Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:41 pm

    http://www.bixler.com/personal/juan/conimage.png

  28. Juan Aguilar Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    C:\Documents and Settings\juan>mkdir “\\.\c:\Documents and Settings\juan\Desktop\con”

    C:\Documents and Settings\juan>rmdir “\\.\c:\Documents and Settings\juan\Desktop\con”

    Easiest $25 ever. Thanks.

  29. J.D. Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:43 pm

    Here tis!

    http://www.jangle.net/images/desktopwithconfolder.png

  30. gilbert Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    Ok, how do make the payment ? http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8979/screenconzi1.jpg

  31. kP Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    That’s a reserved name - CON, for CONsole. the combination of your keyboard and screen. From DOS days.

  32. hexed Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

    http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=constn5.png

    Not photoshoped or otherwise altered, other than to remove names. You can do this yourself using the syntax in the command prompt shown.

    Explination: prefixing with “\\.\” changes the directory creation method, to pretending the folder is being created on a remote machine. After that, the machine will quite happily create a “con” file, as the legacy parts of windows preventing it are not used - only NtCreateFile.

  33. Donderwolkje Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

    cool and freaky.
    crappy OS

  34. ilitirit Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    Too easy.

  35. chris Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:57 pm

    http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/449/conscreenshotrn9.jpg

  36. cweaver Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 2:57 pm

    Go to a command prompt. Type this:

    mkdir “\\.\c:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\con”

    tada.

  37. Jerry Dabrowski Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    would you like to know “how-to” ?
    simple…
    enter “New Folder” name sa follows:
    “con”
    press and hold
    enter “255″
    press

    nobody can distinguish visually - I know it’s a “cheat”

    Jerry

  38. Bill Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    Pay up sucker.

  39. peter Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    seems like ‘con’ is a hidden windows file that you can’t overwrite.

  40. Bill Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/421108749_f225a65d76_b.jpg

  41. Boones Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    Hi there, i’ve made a folder named con

    where i have to send the screenshot?

    or proof it by yourself :)

    just write into the console window: md\\.\C:\con

    done..

    Greetings by Boones

  42. Bill Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    you didn’t say anything about spaces

  43. jas Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:02 pm

    mkdir “\\.\C:\Documents and Settings\username\desktop\con”

  44. mark bob nog Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

    it’s a reserved name under windows… consol…

  45. Gil Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

    the license on my screenshot tool expired. if you will kindly loan me $10 so i can renew the license i’ll be glad to take the screenshot.

  46. Oli Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

    Hey man … I managed to do it ;)
    here is picture proof and I included the command window open so you can see that this is no fake ;)
    www.simnet.is/untitled/con-folder.JPG

  47. Dan Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    We couldn’t resist the challenge, and, as a colleague discovered, it turned out to be surprisingly easy.
    http://www.electricwords.org/2007/03/14/con.png
    Now who wants to guess at how it was done? (Hint: it was done entirely within Windows.)

  48. Kitsunemisao Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    ITs impossible without editing the image.

  49. Tom Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:09 pm

    Ok here:

    http://www.pixelmech.com/rev/ScreenShot002.gif

  50. Reddit Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

    http://reddit.com/info/1a68l/comments

  51. Tordek Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:15 pm

    Can I cheat by using a Linux Window Manager that looks like Windows?

  52. jeff Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

    voila:
    http://jeffemminger.com/images/con-folder.jpg

  53. randomboy Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

    will “‘con” do? :)

  54. Frank Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

    Nice one! ;)

  55. Erin Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

    Here you go.

    http://e-j.fortenberry.net/photos/v/Offline/internet/c_n.png.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

    Windows XP. :-)

  56. Ross Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7355352@N06/421124250/
    Instructions on how to do it are here:
    http://kerneltrap.org/node/5772

  57. Pete Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    You can make one via the command prompt with:

    mkdir “\\.\\c:\documents and settings\username\Desktop\con”

    I’m too lazy to send a screenshot, so no prize for me.

  58. Kenny Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    How can I submit a screenshot to you?

    Basically do this from a command line: md \\.\C:\docume~1\\desktop\con

    Different path for Vista.

  59. craig newbanks Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    you can create a folder on desktop, name it: alt+0160 (for empty space)con, then rename the folder to con.
    i can do the screenshot, but it seems that anyone could have done this already.
    can i have my 25$? that was a tad easy.

    thanks,
    craig

  60. Will Vale-Onslow Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

    Why so then, other 3 letter words are allowed as folder names, so why not con?

  61. Tordek Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    Also:
    http://i15.tinypic.com/49imnfl.jpg
    No linux, no manipulation, real Windows. I’ll take the money on paypal, please.

  62. randomboy Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    also “çon” or “c0n” seem to work. Also it doesn’t matter if it’s on the desktop or anywhere at all…

  63. jim in Holland Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    http://www.shortcuts.nl/dls/con.png

    ?

  64. Phil Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    There you go, it was pretty simple. You cant save an image as “con” either. The reason you can’t do this, is because it is reserved for a drive, but if you go into your reg. and change this saved name to something else, this name, “con”, becomes valid.

    Pay up
    reply to revisionflash@gmail.com

  65. Daniel Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    Create a new folder.

    Paste the below text into the name (Including the quotes.)

    Delete the quotes.

    “Con”

  66. Martyn Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:32 pm

    OK…
    http://www.marengo-ltd.com/temp/win_con.png

    PayPal is fine :-)

  67. Dave Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

    http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1918/condesktoplu8.jpg

  68. gar Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

    That’s really interesting.

    After a bit of Googling I found that you can do it by typing “mkdir \\.\e:\con” at a command prompt. (This came from a comment on http://mjsabby.com/2005/10/windows-xp-con-folderfile-bug.php which also explains why Windows tries to stop you from doing it). It worked for me!

    You can keep the $25 =)

  69. josh Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    Here ya go…

    http://lusciousb.net/media/desktop.bmp

    And for how to do it: http://lusciousb.net/media/desktop.txt

    I didn’t figure it out myself; credit is given in the .txt file.

  70. josh Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pm

    Edit: use this instead for the image (MUCH smaller file): http://lusciousb.net/media/desktop.jpg

  71. Dagfari Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    Here you go!

    http://www.internettimes.org/files/uploads/conn.JPG

  72. josh Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

    Sorry - http://lusciousb.net/media/desktop.JPG

  73. Brian Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 3:59 pm

    You need to hack the source code to Windows! Argh! what do you mean its not open?! ;-) Great fun here- I have a bit on this challenge on my blog. Thanks for the memories DOS…

  74. a.hole Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 4:30 pm

    Anyone can take a screen shot, photoshop it and send it to you. Save you $$, don’t pay

  75. IndianPad Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

    Create a folder can ‘con’ for $25 [Challenge]…

    Create a folder can ‘con’ for $25 [Challenge] posted at IndianPad.com…

  76. Mad Wet Squirrel Says:
    March 14th, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    Shoulda tipped him extra for the PA desktop. :D

  77. kalyan and prashanth Says:
    March 15th, 2007 at 4:46 am

    ya i did it in DOS prompt by using the following command:
    mkdir \\.\”e:\Documents and settings\username\desktop”\con
    mkdir \\.\”e:\Documents and settings\username\desktop”\com1
    mkdir \\.\”e:\Documents and settings\username\desktop”\com2
    mkdir \\.\”e:\Documents and settings\username\desktop”\prn
    mkdir \\.\”e:\Documents and settings\username\desktop”\clock$
    mkdir \\.\”e:\Documents and settings\username\desktop”\nul
    etc.

  78. This article has moved at Bob Meets World Says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 4:17 pm

    […] Bet you can’t do this for $25 | Home | Web 2.0 logos roundup […]

  79. How I Got 10,000+ Unique Visitors in 2 weeks at Bob Meets World Says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    […] posted this article on reddit and the snowball effect came into play after about an hour, the hits just kept coming! I […]

  80. 100 Posts $25 Giveaway at Bob Meets World Says:
    March 28th, 2007 at 9:28 am

    […] The winner will receive their $25 prize-money through PayPal like I did with last weeks $25 contest. […]

  81. Getting 400,000 Hits In One Month Howto at Bob Meets World Says:
    March 29th, 2007 at 10:03 am

    […] one article and end up on their frontpages on your first go: Only one of my posts made it to the front page of reddit. Be careful what you post to Digg since diggers have the power to get you banned. They banned my […]

  82. How I Got Over 2,000 Visitors In The First Week With $0 » David Pitlyuk Says:
    April 3rd, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] http://bobmeetsworld.com/?p=32 […]

  83. 2Perfect Says:
    April 24th, 2007 at 10:52 pm

    That’s cool! I didn’t even know that…

  84. 2Perfect's WebLog Says:
    April 28th, 2007 at 10:28 pm

    links from TechnoratiUrban Dictionary And also today on the bus Armen (I think?) mentioned something about… well… I don’t think I’ll mention it here. But it has to do with females. Then just 3 days ago I found out that you can’t name a folder “con” in Windows But yeah. It’s good to learn random things everyday.

  85. como conseguir más de diez mil visitantes en unas semanas - habitaquo Says:
    May 5th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

    […] las iniciativas de Bob para conseguir visitas. Una de las que más me ha llamado la atención es el concurso que promovió hace unas semanas. Las reglas eran, aparentemente, sencillas. Sólo había que enviar una captura […]

  86. habitaquo Says:
    May 5th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

    links from Technoraticoncurso que promovió hace unas semanas. Las reglas eran, aparentemente, sencillas. Sólo había que enviar una captura de pantalla del escritorio de Windows en la que apareciera una carpeta cuyo nombre fuera con. El primero que lo hiciera se llevaba 25 dólares mediante

  87. 75 Days Later at Bob Meets World Says:
    May 20th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

    […] of pure boredom I started posting about all sorts of things. I covered a lot of topics like why you can’t create a folder called con on your windows desktop, Proof that Captain America wasn’t killed, Hello Kitty Airplanes, How […]

  88. Just Do It at Bob Meets World Says:
    June 6th, 2007 at 11:53 am

    […] Something Away For Free Again?! I think I have had my share of free giveaways and I can tell you that it’s all been worth it! One reason is obviously to […]

  89. Blog Review: BobmeetsWorld Says:
    June 8th, 2007 at 12:59 pm

    […] he’s pointing out the absurd things that come to his attention on a day-to-day basis, he’s at his […]

  90. My Thoughts On Kontera at Bob Meets World Says:
    June 9th, 2007 at 4:14 pm

    […] limit. Nearly half of that amount was made on the first day, when one of my articles got on the frontpage of reddit. Ever since I have had nowhere near those numbers and I got tired of the whole Kontera thing. Their […]

  91. Riding The Rollercoaster To Riches: The Story Of Bob » Make Money Online at Cash Quests Says:
    July 2nd, 2007 at 6:01 am

    […] Bet you can’t do this for $25 […]

  92. .Tsewang Says:
    July 5th, 2007 at 8:21 pm

    hahaa this is crazy. only for geeks.

  93. Russell Wagner Says:
    July 9th, 2007 at 8:24 am

    lol why would you give $25 for just creating a folder on a desktop?

  94. Waffa Says:
    October 6th, 2007 at 7:43 pm

    This is just so funny. I even did not know u can not make folders and files named like CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9…. becouse i was always able to make them as usual files and folders.

    So.. one day i try to make my usual PRN folder what stands for PORNO shortcut for me.. and i was unable to make it in one computer.. so i was like WTF? whats happening… then i end up here and see that ..ehehe.. im not only person in world who can not make PRN folders anymore LOL :D

    I will find out why and on what version computers u can not do it… then post it here. (im using usual windows xp sp2 and 1)

  95. MundoBit Says:
    October 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    links from Technoraticon premios para el que consiguiera crear un archivo o carpeta con estos nombres reservados. En los comentarios de estas webs veréis la forma de hacerlo, y la prueba de que se puede realizar: KernelTrap.org: Windows folder creation surprise.BobMeetsWorld.com: Bet you can’t do this for $25. [IMG Archivos Windows Reservados]

  96. Josh Says:
    December 18th, 2007 at 12:47 am

    Lol, pretty random topics. But, cool contest nevertheless.

    Josh Day
    www.abigarcade.com

  97. nahuel Says:
    May 10th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

    haha that is too easy

    do you know paint?
    ok you can edit your screenshot and called CON

    LOL

Comments