How to extend file path characters maximum limit manually?

Question

I was previously reading an old thread that was last commented back in 2019.

I have an end user who's naming convention is required to be long and requested that I do something about increasing the maximum character limit in file explorer. I followed these steps and still received the same error

1. Hit the Windows key, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem
3. Double click the "Enable long paths Win32" option and enable it.
4. Reboot.

I am still unable to overwrite the values to make the new changes take effect. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Hi German Luna.

Thanks for choosing Microsoft Community.

In your description, your users want to be able to expand the file path character limit a bit.

I noticed that you tried to do something about it in the Group Policy Editor, thanks for your efforts and attempts to solve this issue.

Are you an IT manager belonging to an organization?

What is your OS version? You can check by searching “System information” in the taskbar.

Currently, the maximum number of characters in a file path in Windows is by product design, and if you wish to extend this limit, you will most likely need to do something advanced, such as changing the registry, or using a more advanced type of path, such as a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path.

However, we are unable to assist you with this at this time as this issue is not supported by our community, I do understand the desire to extend the file path character limit at this time, please don't worry about it, this issue is better suited for posting on Microsoft Learn.

I will direct you to the correct location, here is the link here

Windows - Microsoft Q&A

Once you click on the link, sign in to your Microsoft account at the top right and click Ask a question to post your question.

Here you will find more specialized support staff and developers who will be able to provide you with more targeted assistance in the areas of file path character limit extensions, or changes to the registry and the use of alternative paths.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Best regards,

Zev - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

You won't be able to handle file paths longer than 260 chars in File Explorer. You need to use a third party unicode compliant file manager like 7-Zip File Manager, Total Commander, etc

Answer 3

I am using Long Path File tool. You can also try it.

Answer 4

As mentioned, Explorer does not support long paths (>260 characters) regardless of the LongPathsEnabled setting, even in Windows 11.

However, if you install TeraCopy and check the option Use TeraCopy as default copy handler it will give you the capability to copy long paths using Explorer (because TeraCopy jumps in and handles the copy).

That solves part of the problem (i.e. copying folders with long paths), but it won't allow the user to directly create a folder that exceeds the total path length of 260 characters. But they can workaround that by using the TeraCopy-enhanced Explorer to copy another long path and then rename the copied folder.

Or they can use the command line to create a new folder. As long as LongPathsEnabled is set (and it usually is by default) the command line supports long paths. You could even take it a step further and create a custom right-click context menu "New folder" item that works via Cmd and therefore can create a long path.

If you have an Insider Microsoft account, please upvote this feedback:

https://aka.ms/AAn2b02

Answer 5

I am using Long Path File tool. You can also try it.

I took a look at LongPathTool and, unless I missed something, it's just a simple file manager that supports long paths. It's also quite old and requires .Net 3.5 which is no longer pre-installed in Windows. The price seems rather high to me for what's provided.

The completely free, and up-to-date, 7-Zip package includes a similar file manager that fully supports long paths. That would be my recommendation, but there's nothing wrong with using LongPathTool.

Here's a list of file managers I compiled that support long paths:

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/the-files-names-would-be-too-long-for-the-destination-folder-error.17388/post-334793

And TeraCopy (as I mentioned above) nicely integrates into Explorer.