When copying a file/folder, strange characters are added to the file or folder name

Solution 1:

I wouldn't have believed it, but after downloading your Zip file, I did find that your file does have this right-to-left override as first character in its name. I went even to hex-editing the directory entry to verify that this is indeed the case.

The good news is that it is entirely harmless, no text being hidden by this character, so your computer is not infected by a malware that uses this esoteric method to hide anything in the file name.

My private opinion, not based on any source since there doesn't seem to be any, is that you found a weird Windows artifact whose sole purpose is to assure the right-to-left display of the Hebrew word for "copy", עותק.

My conclusion is that this is a not-too-clever localization of an English feature to Windows in Hebrew. The source of this character may have come from the translator who probably mechanically translated strings used in Windows without understanding their context or use. He may in this way have introduced this Unicode character into the string, maybe even without noticing that it was there. Since then Hebrew Windows keeps on blindly adding this character.

I must say that I'm impressed that you have even managed to analyze this problem, probably the world's first Hebrew-reader to have done so. (I did find one person who also discovered the same for the Persian language.)

I don't think there is any remedy to this problem. This has become a Windows "feature". The most you may do is file through the Feedback Hub a complaint with Microsoft.

Realistically speaking, you may either ignore the problem, or avoid copying files with the same names, or use some renaming utility to take the character out of the name.