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I have a custom batch program that I update and run to negate having to constantly waste half an hour just to clean up the Windows start menu every time I'm forced to reinstall Windows. It saves me a lot of hassle and I've got it pretty refined except there is one thing refusing to work.

Unlike literally every other shortcut (*.lnk) and directory, this does not work:

cd "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\AMD Software꞉ Adrenalin Edition"
move "AMD Software꞉ Adrenalin Edition.lnk" "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System\Settings"
cd "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs"
rmdir /S /Q "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\AMD Software꞉ Adrenalin Edition"

I know that the : character has special meaning and that is why the NTFS file system doesn't allow it's use. So whoever was in charge of the installer felt very compelled to use a similar character: modifier letter colon (U+A789).

How do I modify my batch program to move the file and delete the parent directory?

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  • Have you tried removing any attributes and/or replacing ":" with "?" rmdir /s /q "C:\ ... \AMD Software? Adrenalin Edition"?
    – Io-oI
    Commented May 26 at 21:02
  • @Io-oI Using ? in place of the modifier letter color moved the file though it did not rename the file or delete the directory. What is that bit about attributes?
    – John
    Commented May 27 at 15:54
  • see, non-actions point to attribute constraints (just guessing)
    – Io-oI
    Commented May 28 at 18:53

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The name you are seeing is probably not the real name of the file, use:

 dir /a /x

To see the file's real name and delete it, if the real name has really a colon in it try deleting by using the shortname (8.3).

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