DOS FilePath Magic Tricks.txt

# Fully Qualified DOS Paths (begins with a drive letter, a volume separator, and a component separator)
c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

# UNC Paths (begins with two separators w/o a question mark or period following)
\\127.0.0.1\c$\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\LOCALHOST\c$\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\::1\c$\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\0:0:0::1\c$\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\127.0.0.1\admin$\System32\notepad.exe
\\DESKTOP-MH8DLT1\admin$\System32\notepad.exe

# DOS device paths (begin with \\. or \\?)
\\.\c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\.\UNC\LOCALHOST\c$\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\.\c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\.\BootPartition\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\.\Global\BootPartition\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\.\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
\\.\Volume{b289d78f-d491-4f6b-a437-5c51a88fa48f}\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
start \\?\c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

#  Relative to root of the current drive (begins with a single component separator \ )
\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

# Relative to current directory of the specified drive (begins with a drive letter, a volume separator, and no component separator)
c:Windows\System32\notepad.exe # cwd must be c:\
c:..\..\..\..\Windows\System32\notepad.exe # cwd must be less that 4 directories deep

# Relative to current directory (begins with anything else)
non-existant-dir?-no-problem\..\..\..\..\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
extra-slashes-and-dots-are-fine.........\\\\\\\\.\\\\..\\\\..\\..\..\\Windows\\\System32\notepad.exe

# Path Normalization (spaces and single periods are removed, slash changed to backslash)
c:\Windows.\System32.\notepad.exe
"c:\Windows\System32    \notepad.exe"
c:/Windows/System32\notepad.exe
"c:\Windows.\System32. .   ./notepad.exe"

# Environment variables (only from cmd.exe)
%SystemRoot%\System32\notepad.exe
%HomeDrive%Windows\System32\notepad.exe 

# 8.3 Short Filenames
# use dir /-n to list short names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.3_filename