This post has been revised since receiving helpful advice from Rey Santos &
Don Varnau.

I am running XP Professional SP2 with 1 GB RAM on a Dell Inspiron 9100
laptop. Most of my computer work is related to my photography profession.
Naming files (& copying/moving them) in Windows Explorer is a major, required
part of my work (I have over 10,000 photo files).

However, recently Windows Explorer wonâ??t allow long filenames (e.g., over 12
characters). I frequently get a message that a filename is invalid or too
long, even though I have been using/copying filenames equal or longer (e.g.,
30+ characters) for the past two years.

Also, when I try to copy/move an existing file (with a long filename) from
one folder to another, Windows Explorer freezes & an error message indicates
that it has â??encountered a problem & must shut downâ??.

With regard to malware, I regularly use programs for detecting viruses (CAâ??s
eTrust EZ Antivirus) plus CAâ??s spam control, the Microsoft â??Malicious
Software Removal Toolâ??, ad-ware, etc.

Please advise!

Thank you,

Richard Evans

Re: Windows Explorer doesn't allow long filenames (e.g., 12+ character by Shenan

Shenan
Wed Mar 26 17:50:01 PDT 2008

Richard Evans wrote:
> This post has been revised since receiving helpful advice from Rey
> Santos & Don Varnau.
>
> I am running XP Professional SP2 with 1 GB RAM on a Dell Inspiron
> 9100 laptop. Most of my computer work is related to my photography
> profession. Naming files (& copying/moving them) in Windows
> Explorer is a major, required part of my work (I have over 10,000
> photo files).
>
> However, recently Windows Explorer won't allow long filenames
> (e.g., over 12 characters). I frequently get a message that a
> filename is invalid or too long, even though I have been
> using/copying filenames equal or longer (e.g., 30+ characters) for
> the past two years.
>
> Also, when I try to copy/move an existing file (with a long
> filename) from one folder to another, Windows Explorer freezes & an
> error message indicates that it has "encountered a problem & must
> shut down".
>
> With regard to malware, I regularly use programs for detecting
> viruses (CA's eTrust EZ Antivirus) plus CA's spam control, the
> Microsoft "Malicious Software Removal Tool", ad-ware, etc.

What folder are you doing all this in?
C:\what\what\what?
D:\what\what\what?

If you use an external drive - does it react in the same manner?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



Re: Windows Explorer doesn't allow long filenames (e.g., 12+ chara by RichardEvans

RichardEvans
Fri Mar 28 10:31:00 PDT 2008

Hello Shenan,
Your question pinpoints the problems I am having. That is, the â??long
filenameâ?? (& now the double-click image preview feature) problems occur when
there is an extended path to those folders. For example, with the path
â??C:\Documents and Settings\Richard Evans\My Documents\TEMP for My Docs\TEMP -
CI #56 TEMP Win '08 Selectedâ?? the 2 problems disappear.
With the path â??C:\Documents and Settings\Richard Evans\My Documents\My
Pictures (12-22-07 6899=26.8)\Image Files EXC 'All & Selected' (3-2-08
8,692=31.3 GB)\Temp. Image Files (3-2-08 5,593 files 24.4 GB)\TEMP - CI #56
TEMP Win '08 Selectedâ?? the 2 problems occur.

What puzzles me is that I have been using the longer path for about 2 years,
but now suddenly that path appears to be causing these problems. I have over
10k photos on my hard drives, so the paths are critical to keeping them
organized.

Re external hard drives, yes I have two but thus far I have been using only
my internal hardrive (80 GB) for this work.

Thanks for you help!

Richard Evans


"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

> Richard Evans wrote:
> > This post has been revised since receiving helpful advice from Rey
> > Santos & Don Varnau.
> >
> > I am running XP Professional SP2 with 1 GB RAM on a Dell Inspiron
> > 9100 laptop. Most of my computer work is related to my photography
> > profession. Naming files (& copying/moving them) in Windows
> > Explorer is a major, required part of my work (I have over 10,000
> > photo files).
> >
> > However, recently Windows Explorer won't allow long filenames
> > (e.g., over 12 characters). I frequently get a message that a
> > filename is invalid or too long, even though I have been
> > using/copying filenames equal or longer (e.g., 30+ characters) for
> > the past two years.
> >
> > Also, when I try to copy/move an existing file (with a long
> > filename) from one folder to another, Windows Explorer freezes & an
> > error message indicates that it has "encountered a problem & must
> > shut down".
> >
> > With regard to malware, I regularly use programs for detecting
> > viruses (CA's eTrust EZ Antivirus) plus CA's spam control, the
> > Microsoft "Malicious Software Removal Tool", ad-ware, etc.
>
> What folder are you doing all this in?
> C:\what\what\what?
> D:\what\what\what?
>
> If you use an external drive - does it react in the same manner?
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
>
>