How to put a TAB character in a file/dir. name?

On Windows, besides the reserved characters (", :, /, \, ?, *, <, >, |), control characters (such with an ASCII less than 0x20 and also the 0x7F character) are not allowed in file and directory names (usually).

There should be a way though to get the TAB character (horizontal tabulator, ASCII 0x09) in a file or directory name (although it might not be possible as the first and/or last character).

So how can I get the TAB character in a file and directory name on an NTFS volume with native Windows tools? I am quite sure there is a way in Windows, although I do not know what about NTFS.

Your question answers itself. From MSDN:

Characters whose integer representations are in the range from 1 through 31, except for alternate data streams where these characters are allowed. For more information about file streams, see File Streams.

There is no reason to expect that 0x09 should be permitted in a file name when it is explicitly not permitted, as you point out in your first paragraph.

Source