- 2022
- Oct
- 17
Deleting bad files in Windows
Windows can be quite the turd at times. For example, while it enforces a 255 character limit on a file (both path and name,) it will still happily allow programs like Chrome to save filenames that can be overly long, or even full of invalid characters. You’re left with a file that you can’t delete - or even rename - because it’s invalid to Windows.
The easiest way around this, assuming you have admin access to the computer in question, is to install 7zip.
7zip is a cross-platform archiver that supports it’s own native format, supports archive/unarchive of a number of other formats, and can unarchive just about anything under the sun. (Sorry CP/M’ers, I think SQ is too old for even this program to handle!)
Download 7zip from it’s homepage, 7-zip.org
Once you install 7zip, open the file manager interface that comes with the program and navigate to your bad file. You can delete it right from the interface, as it ignores standard windows conventions and does what it’s instructed - which is what it should do!
I use 7zip for pretty much all archiving purposes, even letting it overwrite the native zipper in Windows. It’s just that useful.
