The reason why the space folders link to the desktop is because Explorer sometimes ignores spaces, and so it reads as */Users/Fly/Desktop//* instead of */Users/Fly/Desktop/ /*
Can you imagine the "prank horror virus" that might be created from this madness? Really regret watching that at 3AM - feeling genuinely scared right now. On the other hand - as usual - brilliant video with the most unexpected information. Keep it up!
I think I have an idea about why does Explorer behave this way. Speaking in terms of CMD, when you try to go to a space-folder from desktop, it tries to "dir C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ ". However, as the path is not enclosed in quotation marks, the space gets treated as a part of a command, and you get the contents of Desktop. When you go into an imaginable sub-subfolder though, it does "dir C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \ ". Again, the trailing space is discarded, but now there's a slash after the space-directory name, so it gets listed properly. It works with any number of spaces, e.g. "C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \ " is the same. But whenever you try to access any file from there, it becomes "dir C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \ \file" which is obviously invalid since there's no actual space-subfolder.
Back when I dealt with my first USB virus I learned how they made an invisible name folder to trick people into running the .lnk that executed the virus, and it was precisely this strange space! I kept messing with my friends making forbidden folder names like CON or PRN or even completely empty folders LOL
I did the ALT + 255 trick a few years ago to make all my desktop icons have no filename. It was weird looking at them in explorer but it works just fine on the desktop
You can also make a folder like this with the ALT + (NumPad) 0165 combination. I used this several times and I was able to rename and also delete the folder(s).
I'd guess explorer treats it like the "." directory that points to itself, but only in some cases. So it displays Desktop\. which is just Desktop, but when you're trying to open something, it's not there, unless you actually created the file in Desktop\
and this is actually possibly handy for deleting folders explorer thinks they're part of the system such as startup, who knows maybe it also gives errors
Looks like Explorer tries to strip the name of the folders you try to open of their leading and trailing whitespaces, as they should normally have none, and gets confused. So that would explain why 'C:/Users/FlyTech/Desktop/ /' shows the content of the desktop itself, as when clicking to go there it resolves it as 'C:/Users/FlyTech/Desktop//' and implicitly removes the redundant trailing slash (or backslah) whereas pointing to the inode directly with an absolute path skips the folder name resolution and actually takes you there. That would also explain why you can't reach the content of the folders without slapping the full path in the address bar. That also makes the deletion part of the video make sense. And the Open dialog should have a different behaviour as it is not directly part of the Explorer, and probably doesn't strip the node names for some stability/compatibility/whatever requirements apps could have for it, since it is a universal tool used by countless applications including non Windows ones, and so it would logically not share he same code for navigating through files and folders. At least that's my guess.
And of course WSL doesn't care about all this bullshittery HAHAHAHAHA. 🤣 Linux be like "Wanna name your folder that ? Alright, as long as it is characters that exist, you're the boss." It's hilarious how even in Windows, Linux performs better than NT.
Everyone who's been to uni knows this all too well. Stick your thumbdrive into the wrong PC and it gets infected with a virus that replaces every file with .EXEs. Thankfully they didn't delete the files outright (so as to not appear sus in the disk size pie chart) but moves them in an invisible folder with a blank name in the drive root.
I tried creating "abc", "abc ", " abc", and " abc ", they worked without any weird behaviors on XP, but deleting those throws me an error that the folder is not empty
another way of deleting it is by recycling the folders, (be sure to create a new desktop folder as well) moving the recycling bin to the desktop from $Recycle.bin. (The system will create a new recycle bin dont panic) then try deleting it once (it will say error) but the folder with appear with a jumble of numbers and letters. finally you can delete it with ‘rd C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\JumbleOfRandomLettersAndNumbers’ and it will be successfully removed
Me: interesting, space named folders Fly: let's name the folders with NBSP (extended ascii 255) Parkour XD But anyways, folders named with only NBSP would work as nornal folders? Because I have tested other things changing space with NBSP and the result is that NBSP works (normally) like a normal printable character
This channel reminds me of the kind of fooling around I'd do on my PC as a kid. It can be an educational experience! I remember wanting to create an elusive hidden folder once - even though I had nothing to hide, I just liked cool ciphers and spy themed toys so it was along those lines. I of course knew about the real hidden folders feature, but they're not really hidden if you can just check a box in Folder Options to make them show up right? When I looked it up I quickly ran across the Alt + 255 trick, and under Properties > Customize there was even a fully transparent icon you could use to effectively hide the folder... so long as you didn't select it, or view the Desktop in Explorer or something. However this kind of broke on Vista because it'd put a little border around all your desktop icons. Most of the other solutions I found online simply did the equivalent of marking the folder as hidden in the Properties dialog, but there was one that was a bit more clever and actually delivered on its promise. That was an app called WinMend Folder Hidden, which seemed to create a true hidden folder (in actual reality it could've been a silly trick, but I've never looked into how it really worked.) Of course this is all security by obscurity. At the time the idea of just using an encrypted drive like TrueCrypt wasn't as cool to me - after all, having it listed in My Computer totally gives the game away! But if I were to actually try and hide something now, I know it's the only real solution. Not that I ever had anything to hide of course, I'm an open book :)
That's not _space_ it's _non-breaking space_, and its code-point varies from code-page to code-page. It's only 255 in DOS code-pages, in Unicode and Windows code-pages, it's 160. (It's 154 in Cyrillic.) In non-DOS code-pages, 255 will render as something else, often as ÿ. - You can create files and folders with all kinds of non-space spaces like zwj zwnj half-space quarter-space hair-space thin-space, etc.
I tried it on my host but not on an important folder and when i deleted it through explorer it did not delete the parent folder which is just a folder i created seconds ago
7:01 This happens because, let's say when you use rmdir in cmd, It will say the directory is not empty right? only rmdir Folder /s /q will work. Same thing here, You see, rmdir uses the legacy RemoveDirectory call: BOOL WINAPI RemoveDirectory( _In_ LPCTSTR lpPathName ); The newer delete function uses the SHFileOperation call, relying on SHLWAPI.DLL: #include #include #pragma comment(lib, "Shlwapi.lib") int main() { SHFILEOPSTRUCT fileOp; ZeroMemory(&fileOp, sizeof(SHFILEOPSTRUCT)); \ fileOp.wFunc = FO_DELETE; fileOp.fFlags = FOF_NOCONFIRMATION | FOF_SILENT; fileOp.pFrom = L"C:\\Users\\fly\Desktop\folder"; int result = SHFileOperation(&fileOp); // Check the result if (result == 0) {
} else {
} return 0; } Because you uses UNC paths to create the folder, It relies on the RemoveDirectory call instead of the SHFileOperation call, which the SHFileOperation call is only initialized using the delete button or the rmdir Folder /s /q command, Windows uses UNC paths as network paths, So you can only delete it using the rmdir "\\?\C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \" command or using regedit. Hope this helps
Ahh i tried on my main PC and it Works Fine After deleting it using: rd \\?\C:\Users\User\Desktop\ \ And it Still works. (PS: Im Typing this message on my Main PC.
I did the huge mistake of trying this on my machine without watching the entire vid and deleted the folder. PLS DO NOT DO THIS I LOST MY ENTIRE DESKTOP!!!
BRO I DIDNT DID IT ON A VM AND IT HAD ALL MY FILES IN IT AND I TYPED "rd "\\?\C:\Users\oioiu\Desktop\ \" and i really deleted it without losing my data lol
I'm using Windows 10 32-bit. According to Google, WSL only support 64-bit Windows. So how to delete my "only space" folder? I create it and can't delete it :( .Please reply me, FlyTech.
Fun fact: After creating this folder, all my efforts to delete it was failed. Then, my computer is in "sleep mode" and I took a breakfast. When I return with my computer to study onilne, I see this folder in the recycle bin. And I can permanently delete this without any error. It's so fun 🤣🤣
I just tried this on Windows xp and it behaves normally except for some reason you can't cd into the space folder, even if you _cd.._ in a folder inside that folder it brings you to the folder above it. 🤔 It stopped working on Windows 7 or Vista. 🤔
Happy 22/2/22, my dear tech flies
Happy 22/2/22 to you too!
This only happens once in history. Glad to be a part of it.
Happy twosday
@@farmervillager1376 it actually happened another time in 1922. So not so once in history lol
thank you
The reason why the space folders link to the desktop is because Explorer sometimes ignores spaces, and so it reads as */Users/Fly/Desktop//* instead of */Users/Fly/Desktop/ /*
i know
Interesting how it works fine even with that extra second slash
Can you imagine the "prank horror virus" that might be created from this madness? Really regret watching that at 3AM - feeling genuinely scared right now.
On the other hand - as usual - brilliant video with the most unexpected information. Keep it up!
Согласен, лайк и доброй ночи.
*What a genius way to hide the homework folder. 😅*
Hehehehehehehehehhrhehhehehehrhrhrhe
theres another, transparent icon 💀
Téže si to myslím :D
@@blob8556 ik
@@blob8556 a lot of transparent icon folders, all named whitespace. So that group-select ( whatever it’s called ) won’t instantly reveal it.
1:34 What? Thumbs.db is evolving! CONGRATULATIONS! Your Thumbs.db evolved into Thumbs.dll!
DB = Data base
DLL = Dynamic Link Library
is not a pokemon
I think I have an idea about why does Explorer behave this way. Speaking in terms of CMD, when you try to go to a space-folder from desktop, it tries to "dir C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ ". However, as the path is not enclosed in quotation marks, the space gets treated as a part of a command, and you get the contents of Desktop. When you go into an imaginable sub-subfolder though, it does "dir C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \ ". Again, the trailing space is discarded, but now there's a slash after the space-directory name, so it gets listed properly. It works with any number of spaces, e.g. "C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \ " is the same. But whenever you try to access any file from there, it becomes "dir C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \ \file" which is obviously invalid since there's no actual space-subfolder.
cd*
i goddamn hate you correctors*
0:31 Vsauce Micheal here,Your Motherboard isn’t Broken
Back when I dealt with my first USB virus I learned how they made an invisible name folder to trick people into running the .lnk that executed the virus, and it was precisely this strange space!
I kept messing with my friends making forbidden folder names like CON or PRN or even completely empty folders LOL
I did the ALT + 255 trick a few years ago to make all my desktop icons have no filename. It was weird looking at them in explorer but it works just fine on the desktop
same with the office desktop background (i was 7 lmao)
Because Linux can deal with weird folders … now I get why flytrch doesn’t use Linux (his content would be gone)
People pretty much knew this since forever, search up “how to make a hidden folder on windows xp”
Have you watched the entire video though
Happy to see you post again, your channel is really informative and interesting. Nearing 100K 😁
Thank you
You can also make a folder like this with the ALT + (NumPad) 0165 combination. I used this several times and I was able to rename and also delete the folder(s).
That's fake space, like ALT + 255 too.
my keyboard is delayed it inputs ¥ instead of so 255 is correct for me
I'd guess explorer treats it like the "." directory that points to itself, but only in some cases. So it displays Desktop\. which is just Desktop, but when you're trying to open something, it's not there, unless you actually created the file in Desktop\
and this is actually possibly handy for deleting folders explorer thinks they're part of the system such as startup, who knows maybe it also gives errors
Looks like Explorer tries to strip the name of the folders you try to open of their leading and trailing whitespaces, as they should normally have none, and gets confused.
So that would explain why 'C:/Users/FlyTech/Desktop/ /' shows the content of the desktop itself, as when clicking to go there it resolves it as 'C:/Users/FlyTech/Desktop//' and implicitly removes the redundant trailing slash (or backslah) whereas pointing to the inode directly with an absolute path skips the folder name resolution and actually takes you there.
That would also explain why you can't reach the content of the folders without slapping the full path in the address bar.
That also makes the deletion part of the video make sense.
And the Open dialog should have a different behaviour as it is not directly part of the Explorer, and probably doesn't strip the node names for some stability/compatibility/whatever requirements apps could have for it, since it is a universal tool used by countless applications including non Windows ones, and so it would logically not share he same code for navigating through files and folders.
At least that's my guess.
And of course WSL doesn't care about all this bullshittery HAHAHAHAHA. 🤣
Linux be like "Wanna name your folder that ? Alright, as long as it is characters that exist, you're the boss."
It's hilarious how even in Windows, Linux performs better than NT.
I am glad to announce that today is my birthday, and I'm very proud of this palindrome. The 22 02 2022 is such an amazing day !
In 2 days it is my birthday!
lol, i like how no one would do that but still its funny to name it just Ｓｐａｃｅｓ
This would make an awesome CTF
3:58
Okay that's weird..
Everyone who's been to uni knows this all too well. Stick your thumbdrive into the wrong PC and it gets infected with a virus that replaces every file with .EXEs. Thankfully they didn't delete the files outright (so as to not appear sus in the disk size pie chart) but moves them in an invisible folder with a blank name in the drive root.
Alt-255 is the NBSP, that is, the non-breaking space.
is it possible to have a folder with no name somehow
seems like "The Shadow Realm v2 : The Hall Of Illusions"
I tried creating "abc", "abc ", " abc", and " abc ", they worked without any weird behaviors on XP, but deleting those throws me an error that the folder is not empty
What happens in windows defender tries to go through weird folders and files
another way of deleting it is by recycling the folders, (be sure to create a new desktop folder as well) moving the recycling bin to the desktop from $Recycle.bin. (The system will create a new recycle bin dont panic) then try deleting it once (it will say error) but the folder with appear with a jumble of numbers and letters. finally you can delete it with ‘rd C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\JumbleOfRandomLettersAndNumbers’ and it will be successfully removed
“only try this in a vm”
uh oh i did this on a school pc :|
Me: interesting, space named folders
Fly: let's name the folders with NBSP (extended ascii 255)
Parkour XD
But anyways, folders named with only NBSP would work as nornal folders? Because I have tested other things changing space with NBSP and the result is that NBSP works (normally) like a normal printable character
yea NBSP Works normally
This reminds me about the movie matrix, where mostly nothing is real.
This channel reminds me of the kind of fooling around I'd do on my PC as a kid. It can be an educational experience!
I remember wanting to create an elusive hidden folder once - even though I had nothing to hide, I just liked cool ciphers and spy themed toys so it was along those lines. I of course knew about the real hidden folders feature, but they're not really hidden if you can just check a box in Folder Options to make them show up right?
When I looked it up I quickly ran across the Alt + 255 trick, and under Properties > Customize there was even a fully transparent icon you could use to effectively hide the folder... so long as you didn't select it, or view the Desktop in Explorer or something. However this kind of broke on Vista because it'd put a little border around all your desktop icons.
Most of the other solutions I found online simply did the equivalent of marking the folder as hidden in the Properties dialog, but there was one that was a bit more clever and actually delivered on its promise. That was an app called WinMend Folder Hidden, which seemed to create a true hidden folder (in actual reality it could've been a silly trick, but I've never looked into how it really worked.)
Of course this is all security by obscurity. At the time the idea of just using an encrypted drive like TrueCrypt wasn't as cool to me - after all, having it listed in My Computer totally gives the game away! But if I were to actually try and hide something now, I know it's the only real solution. Not that I ever had anything to hide of course, I'm an open book :)
That's not _space_ it's _non-breaking space_, and its code-point varies from code-page to code-page. It's only 255 in DOS code-pages, in Unicode and Windows code-pages, it's 160. (It's 154 in Cyrillic.) In non-DOS code-pages, 255 will render as something else, often as ÿ. - You can create files and folders with all kinds of non-space spaces like zwj zwnj half-space quarter-space hair-space thin-space, etc.
Forget homework folders
Folders FTW
I wonder what would happen if you could manage to get some version of Windows on ext4
h m m m
You can install it on btrfs
Me too, my friend... It's not easily possible. Though should I ever find out how, I'll be sure to try it out.
@@FlyTechVideos it might be possible with quibble if somebody writes an ext4 driver
the real challange would be running windows on APFS
This is also shown in another video with the folders *"Docs"* and *"Docs "*
fact: you are able to EASILY delete the "space folder". you need to go into the folder, then delete the space folder in there, go out, then refresh.
OMG THANK YOU
How do folders that are visible but do not exist work? Is it that their metadata exists or what?
wait a sec, space and ... are the same?????!????
(2:32)
yeah i used it for my desktop to look good like 2 months ago
I tried it on my host but not on an important folder and when i deleted it through explorer it did not delete the parent folder which is just a folder i created seconds ago
shouldn't alt+0160 also work?
what would happen if you give profile manager a spaces user or at least a spaces profile? o.o
0:44: that's something, I forgot what it was, but you can also use Ctrl+shift+u then type the Unicode which I forgot
You Earned a new subscriber
well now i have an bizare ass folder that i can't delete, i shoud have been more carefull *but that seems as a cool idea for an malware*
At windows 10 newer they don't get a desktop so it's working and it works files they can open files.
I was scared of the invisible start menu of the windows 8?1 in scratch
I remember doing this on desktop shortcut in windows xp.
So all shortcut looks blend with the wallpaper.
I tried to create this in my host but after reboot the system just die and kept restart
Windows is off to S P A C E !
this totorial for folders with only spaces also works in linux.
Can i do it on my main without crashing it?
What if you set one of them as the desktop folder?
7:01 This happens because, let's say when you use rmdir in cmd, It will say the directory is not empty right? only rmdir Folder /s /q will work. Same thing here, You see, rmdir uses the legacy RemoveDirectory call:
BOOL WINAPI RemoveDirectory(
_In_ LPCTSTR lpPathName
);
The newer delete function uses the SHFileOperation call, relying on SHLWAPI.DLL:
#include
#include
#pragma comment(lib, "Shlwapi.lib")
int main()
{
SHFILEOPSTRUCT fileOp;
ZeroMemory(&fileOp, sizeof(SHFILEOPSTRUCT));
\
fileOp.wFunc = FO_DELETE;
fileOp.fFlags = FOF_NOCONFIRMATION | FOF_SILENT;
fileOp.pFrom = L"C:\\Users\\fly\Desktop\folder";
int result = SHFileOperation(&fileOp);
// Check the result
if (result == 0)
{
}
else
{
}
return 0;
}
Because you uses UNC paths to create the folder, It relies on the RemoveDirectory call instead of the SHFileOperation call, which the SHFileOperation call is only initialized using the delete button or the rmdir Folder /s /q command, Windows uses UNC paths as network paths, So you can only delete it using the rmdir "\\?\C:\Users\fly\Desktop\ \" command or using regedit. Hope this helps
Alt + 255 does *no-break space,* not space.
I wish I saw 9:10 I did it on my main pc ;-;
No worries though because no data was lost, The space folder is gone though so Mission seccuss
9:10 shit, I wanted to do that on my friend’s computer
I love Ｓｐａｃｅｓ
the alt+255 thing didnt work
2:09 my closet
Ahh i tried on my main PC and it Works Fine After deleting it using: rd \\?\C:\Users\User\Desktop\ \ And it Still works. (PS: Im Typing this message on my Main PC.
Loool, I knew that Alt+255 "feature"
I did the huge mistake of trying this on my machine without watching the entire vid and deleted the folder. PLS DO NOT DO THIS I LOST MY ENTIRE DESKTOP!!!
8:10 didn't you say that already?
you're about to hit 100k subs
Old is new again lol. I guess you just browse 2007 tutorials and got it from there xD
*DIRECTORY IS NOT EMPTY*
O n l y s p a c e s , h u h ?
Is it just kind of like a temporary ".."?
I mean, space is infinite. Think of how many folders could go in there 📁📂
Oh great trick!!!
" " has Alt code 255
backed up my files
T a l k i n g t o m
um I tried this on a real computer with just one folder. nothing bad happened
BRO I DIDNT DID IT ON A VM AND IT HAD ALL MY FILES IN IT AND I TYPED "rd "\\?\C:\Users\oioiu\Desktop\ \" and i really deleted it without losing my data lol
What if you try these using third party file manager??
did you know if you rename a recycle bin with only 1 space it accepts you to
Thats because its not actually renaming the recycle bin folder.
yo tysm
I'm using a laptop, so that's no way I can use the Numpad, turns out I can't create a no-name folder
let’s go 100k subs!
I'm using Windows 10 32-bit. According to Google, WSL only support 64-bit Windows. So how to delete my "only space" folder?
I create it and can't delete it :( .Please reply me, FlyTech.
Hah
Fun fact: After creating this folder, all my efforts to delete it was failed. Then, my computer is in "sleep mode" and I took a breakfast. When I return with my computer to study onilne, I see this folder in the recycle bin. And I can permanently delete this without any error. It's so fun 🤣🤣
03:14:08 UTC on 19 January 2038
that's normal for mac users
LiNUX: The first time?
I MADE ONE WITH THE MD COMMAND IN THE VIDEO HOW DO I REMOVE IT???
Delete the folder that contains the broken folder.
@@SOTP. so my desktop?
Guys, I find a new way. We can open the anonymous folder and delete the anonymous folder contained in it!
Only *S p a c e s*
I can't do this. Help me.
See, space -) ⠀ (-
⠀
Nice video like always
Thanks again!
I just tried this on Windows xp and it behaves normally except for some reason you can't cd into the space folder, even if you _cd.._ in a folder inside that folder it brings you to the folder above it. 🤔
It stopped working on Windows 7 or Vista. 🤔
yes
Where is Vsauce?
ÿ is the character I get
ᴄᴏᴏᴏᴏᴏᴏᴏʟ
More s p a c e .
S P A C E H E R E
you are so close to 100k subs
I know!! :D
@@FlyTechVideos happy
Create folder named "con,,
i rebooted my pc while windows was installing and it STILL BOOTED WITH MY USB??!!! 😂😂😂😂
at 0:56
Ist da was nicht in Ordnung mit den emojis?
Warum,
huh fake id