how to allow files starting with period and no extension in windows 2003 server?

Question

How can I create this file in a directory in windows 2003 SP2:

.hgignore

I get error: You must type a file name.

Answer 1

That's a "feature" of Windows Explorer. Try to create your files from a command line (or from a batch/program you wrote) and it should work fine. Try this from a dos prompt:

echo Hello there! > .hgignore

Answer 2

By the way Raymond Chen had a blog post about this topic a while back:

Why doesn't Explorer let you create a file whose name begins with a dot?

In which he mentions

You can do it from the command line or use your favorite file management tool.