From Leo's mailbag:
> From: A Computer User
> Sent: June 11, 2009
> To: Ask Leo!
> Subject: files beginning with tilde disappear
>
> Leo,
> The problem (using Win XP): In the My Documents folder, I
> have a subfolder "Company". Within the "Company" folder is
> a subfolder "Open Today." I created a shortcut to the "Open
> Today" folder and placed it on the desktop so I could
> access "Open Today" quickly. Within the "Open Today" folder
> are about fifteen files of different types, but in order to
> group the five most important ones together so I could open
> them all with a single mouse click, I gave them names
> beginning with the tilde (~) character.
>
> Two days ago, I tried to open these files, and whoa! . . .
> all five of these files that begin with the tilde were gone
> . . . completely. Not only had the files disappeared, but
> the shortcuts to them had disappeared too. (If it had just
> been a deleted file, I would have expected that the
> shortcut would remain but would of course be unable to find
> a file that wasn't there.
>
> They weren't in the recycle bin and they were also missing
> from the backup drive.
>
> Is this a problem caused by the name of the file?
> (Beginning with a ~)?
I'm guessing here, but yes ... I think tilde was an unfortunate
choice.
Several programs create temporary files that begin with tilde,
and as such many cleanup utilities (perhaps even Windows own)
will *assume* that any file beginning with a tilde is a temporary
file that can be deleted.
I'd choose something else - perhaps something "a." or "0."
to be safe.
--
Thanks for asking,
Leo Notenboom