How do I check if a given string is a legal/valid file name under Windows?

Question

I want to include a batch file rename functionality in my application. A user can type a destination filename pattern and (after replacing some wildcards in the pattern) I n

Answer 1

Rather than explicitly include all possible characters, you could do a regex to check for the presence of illegal characters, and report an error then. Ideally your application should name the files exactly as the user wishes, and only cry foul if it stumbles across an error.