Why is the DOS path character "\"?

Microsoft does some crazy things for backwards compatibility. Here's one of my favorites related to the Display Control Panel: <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/01/10/511201.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/01/10/511201....</a>

An excellent case of backwards compatibility above all else, including common sense!