As a full time desktop Linux user since 1999 (the actual year of the Linux desktop, I swear) I wish all you Windows folks the best of luck on the next clean install π
...and Happy 30th Birthday "New Technology" File System!
Furthermore, apps using the unicode versions of functions (which all apps should be doing for a couple decades now) have 32kb maximum character length paths.
I think they mean the full path length. As in you can't nest folders too deep or the total path length hits a limit. Not individual folder name limits.
File paths. Not just the filename, the entire directory path, including the filename. It's way too easy to run up against limit if you're actually organized.
I've run into it at work where I don't get to choose many elements. Thanks "My Name - OneDrive" and people who insist on embedding file information into filenames.
The limit was 260. The OS and the filesystem support more. You have to enable a registry key and apps need to have a manifest which says they understand file paths longer than 260 characters. So while it hasn't been a limitation for awhile, as long as apps were coded to support lesser path lengths it will continue to be a problem. There needs to be an conversion mechanism like Windows 95 had so that apps could continue to use short file names. Internally the app could use short path names while the rest of the OS was no longer held back.
You like diving 12 folders deep to find the file you're after? I feel like there's better, more efficient ways to be organized using metadata, but maybe I'm wrong.
Not OP, but I occasionally come across this issue at work, where some user complains they they are unable to access a file/folder because of the limit. You often find this in medium-large organisations with many regions and divisions and departments etc. Usually they would create a shortcut to their team/project's folder space so they don't have to manually navigate to it each time. The folder structure might be quite nested, but it's organized logically, it makes sense. Better than dumping millions of files into a single folder.
Anyways, this isn't actually an NTFS limit, but a Windows API limit. There's even a registry value[1] you can change to lift the limit, but the problem is that it can crash legacy programs or lead to unexpected behavior, so large organisations (like ours) shy away from the change.
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?
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.