How to remove 260 characters limit of the Windows 10 NTFS paths?


  1. Posts : 8
    Windows 10 64bit, v. 1150
       #1

    How to remove 260 characters limit of the Windows 10 NTFS paths?


    I read the article: How to enable paths longer than 260 characters in Windows 10
    it suggests two ways:
    A)
    1. Hit the Windows key, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
    2. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem > NTFS.
    3. Double click the Enable NTFS long paths option and enable it.
    B)
    1. Hit the Windows key, type regedit and press Enter.
    2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\ {48981759-12F2-42A6-A048-028B3973495F} Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies
    3. Select the LongPathsEnabled key, or create it as a DWORD (32-bit) value if it does not exist.
    4. Set the value to 1 and close the Registry Editor.
    but my Windows 10 Home does not feature gpedit nor i can find "Group Policy Objects" folder in regedit or "LongPathsEnabled" key anywhere in registry. I was able to shorten the filename using external application 7zip File manager, but i want to remove or increase this 260 limit. What are other ways please?
    Update: another tutorial suggests:
    1. Open Registry Editor.
    2. Go to the following Registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies
    If you don't have such a key, then they suggest to create it:
    3. On the right side, create a new 32-bit DWORD value named LongPathsEnabled. Set its value data to 1.
    4. restart Windows
    but in my case neither of thes worked
    Another tutorial says that mentioned entry can be created in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem (i am yet to restart my system to test if this path will work - i doubt).


    --
    Windows 10 64bit, version 1511
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 43,004
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    How do you remove the limit?

    It's a bit more complicated than just those settings e.g. see
    Microsoft Removes 260 Characters Path Length Limit in Windows 10 RS
    post #6

    Enable or Disable Win32 Long Paths in Windows 10
    - see the preamble to this tutorial about the requirement for it to be supported in a given program.

    There are other threads on tenforums which discussed this some time ago e.g.
    256 Character Limit still exists on Windows 10?
    Last edited by dalchina; 01 Mar 2020 at 07:13.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #3

    @postcd

    Hi there

    the problem now is that most of the GUI ("Windowed") programs for displaying / searching for Windows files etc are based on the old File explorer API so you will still only see the original limit even though internally the restriction has gone.

    This includes various 3rd party apps too.

    The only way currently to do it in Windows is via the WSL . Not a very satisfactory outcome -- until some genius out there re-writes a File explorer thing using the new api.

    Another way is to boot up any live Linux distro (Linux Mint is probably the easiest for "Newbies" as it's almost more Windows than Windows) and then use its file manager to display long file nemaes and paths. Use Samba to share between Windows and Linux. The Mint live distro will probably have it installed by default anyway.

    I've made several posts on this on this Forum with examples displayed. Just use the search facility as I think it was a while ago.

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 1,680
    X
       #4

    I checked the registry key in that tutorial. My "long" mode is disabled. But in WSL (Ubuntu) I was able to get to more than 3000 characters in a path name by creating subfolder after subfolder ... nested deeply.

    Eventually bash crashed as I was creating yet more subfolders. I guess I hit the limit.

    But the limit is so large that it will likely never pose a problem.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #5

    margrave55 said:
    I checked the registry key in that tutorial. My "long" mode is disabled. But in WSL (Ubuntu) I was able to get to more than 3000 characters in a path name by creating subfolder after subfolder ... nested deeply.

    Eventually bash crashed as I was creating yet more subfolders. I guess I hit the limit.

    But the limit is so large that it will likely never pose a problem.
    Hi there
    as I said it's fine if you have stuff that can use the long file names --WSL works of course --- why nobody has updated their File Explorer type of apps to use the new API is a matter of mystery.

    BTW @margrave55 in the WSL you can install some "Window" / GUI type programs although getting a full windowed Linux desktop isn't really possible yet. You CAN install some Linux GUI file managers and GRSYNC which can browse long file names easily enough !!!!

    C'mon Windows developers -- shouldn't be that hard to fix your File managers --ist one to do it could earn some serious dosh !!!

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


 

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