Deleting Files on Samba Servers May Delete Local Files Instead

When you use the Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks (Vredir.vxd) to connect to a Samba file server running on a UNIX-based computer and you try to delete files on the server, you may delete files on your Windows 95-based computer instead.

This behavior occurs because Samba file servers let you create file names with characters that are invalid in Windows 95. These invalid characters include the following characters:

• backslash (\)
• asterisk (*)
• question mark (?)

For example, Samba file servers let you create file names such as c:\*.* or \\server\share\*.*. If a UNIX user creates a file called "c:\*.*" and shares it, a Windows 95 user who connects to the server and tries to delete the file with Windows Explorer or My Computer may delete all the files in the root directory of local drive C instead.

NOTE: You are not affected by this problem if any of the following conditions are true:

• You are not connected to a local area network.
• You do not use a dial-up application (such as Dial-Up Networking) to dial into a local area network.
• You are connected to a local area network, but you do not connect to Samba file servers running on UNIX-based computers.
• You connect to Samba file servers running on UNIX-based computers but you delete only files you created with Windows Explorer or My Computer.

Although this is not a problem with Windows 95, Microsoft has released a new version of the Vredir.vxd file (version 4.00.955) that filters out files that have file names with invalid characters. When you use the updated version of the Vredir.vxd file, you cannot see these files and cannot, therefore, try to delete them.

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

Note that Microsoft has also released this update as part of Microsoft Windows 95 Service Pack 1. For information about Microsoft Windows 95 Service Pack 1, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: