this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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I think I've spotted the real problem.
People have been talking about the real problem from the beginning of the thread: small character limit on file paths.
The limit is 32,000 characters.
Only if you go into settings, disable the safety measures and change it. And some apps might break.
No, the default file path limit is 256 characters. And I donβt mean file name. Full file path.
No, you don't need to change any settings, that's the thing! Windows, unlike other OSes, has several APIs. Old apps (and dumb apps) are using old API and are limited to 260 characters. New apps are using new API and are limited by 32k characters. This "new API" is available since NT4, btw.
I remember I had to change a setting when using Windows. And it even showed me an βAre you sure?β dialog. It wasnβt that long ago. Is that not a thing anymore?
Once again, that only affects old or dumb apps. Any half decent app supports 32k paths since late 1990-s.
I would be pissed if they made me use such a ridiculously long login name at work. Mine is twelve characters and that's already a pain in the ass (but it's a huge company and I have a really common name, so I guess all the shorter variations were already taken).
Edit: Also, I checked it's really very simple to enable 32kb paths in recent versions of Windows.
If your name consists of non-ASCII characters, like Thai words or Arabic or Chinese, it's pretty easy to rack up >15 bytes in your username alone.