>>> import os.path >>> os.path.exists("con") False >>> os.path.exists("nul") False >>> os.path.exists("prn") False This is in Windows 2000 (5.00.2195) sp4, using *both* Python 2.3.5 and 2.5.1, no cygwin. Personally, I'm +1 with Mark Hammond about this: I agree it is unfortunate that the behaviour has changed, but these special names are broken enough on Windows that rely on the kernel32 function and behaves like it says seems the sanest thing to do. Taking in consideration that *now* it behaves equally in different windows systems, but not before, I think this issue should be closed as "invalid" (it's not a bug). I'll wait some days to get more behaviour responses, though. Regards,