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

I use this to get rid of invalid characters in filenames without throwing exceptions:

private static readonly Regex InvalidFileRegex = new Regex(
    string.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(@"<>:""/\|?*")));

public static string SanitizeFileName(string fileName)
{
    return InvalidFileRegex.Replace(fileName, string.Empty);
}