How to delete directories with pathnames too long for normal delete. There are two things not already mentioned in the existing answers. You can use extended length path prefix to access long paths. With Windows 1. 0, you can enable long path support for general use note however, that not all applications will work with long paths, you should test older software. Only software with an appropriate manifest entry will be able to make use of this. Long Path Prefix. The Windows API has a special function that supports Unicode path names up to 3. This is often mistakenly referred to as UNC naming but it isnt though it is related. The prefix used to tell the API to use long Unicode paths is as in D very long path. UNC names are normally used when referring to paths on remote servers in the form servernamepath namefile name. The command prompt is an antiquated, but powerful Windows tool. Well show you the most useful commands every Windows user needs to know. This is what I do when I cannot delete a files when the file name is too long 1. Drill down into the folders to the folder that has the problem file in it. I am looking for a way to delete all files older than 7 days in an MSDOS batch file. Ive searched around the web, and found some examples with hundreds of lines of. Navigation. This article applies to Federated Authentication Services versions 7. Overview Install FAS Service. Yes, once again RoboCopy comes to the rescue for things other than copying files and folders. If youve been an admin on Windows boxxen for terribly long, I hope. Hi, I am trying to migrate some corporate data from a legacy Novell platform to a new AD environment using Robocopy but I am receiving the following error. You can combine this with the long path prefix so UNCservershare. Note that some, poorly written but sadly quite common, applications do not support UNC file paths nor the long path prefix. Reference https msdn. Long path support. This is an option that has been added to recent versions of Windows 1. It is not, at the time of writing, activated by default since it requires specific application support. Interestingly, Power. Shell has support built in so enabling this option will allow long paths to be used directly in Power. Robocopy Long File Name Support' title='Robocopy Long File Name Support' />Shell scripts. You can activate it via the Group Policy editor if you have a version of Windows with that. Or you can simply use the following Registry change. As always, please back up the section of the registry you are changing before doing anything. Brain, Could be that the robocopy script causes the recursion in the target directory tree because of junction points in the source. Im pretty sure the. Microsoft errs on the side of caution, so users might not be able to delete a file whose Windows file name is too long. There is a way to get around the Windows path. Run regedit. exe. Confirm the UAC prompt. Navigate to the key HKEYCURRENTUSERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrent. VersionGroup Policy Objects4. F2 4. 2A6 A0. 48 0. B3. 97. 34. 95. FMachineSystemCurrent. Control. SetPolicies. Robocopy Long File Name Support' title='Robocopy Long File Name Support' />Create or change the key Long. Paths. Enabled. If it does not exist, right click on Policies and select New Dword 3. Value from the menu. Set Long. Paths. Enabled to 1 to enable. Any applications with appropriate manifest entries will now have access to POSIX standard long paths. This should include Windows Store apps. Reference https blogs. UPDATE 2. 01. 7 0. I did some more digging. It looks like you can now set long filename support with a system key HKLMSYSTEMCurrent. Control. SetControlFile. Nraas Debug Enabler Sims 3 there. Arduino Delphi Serial Communication Protocols. System Long. Paths. Enabled Type REGDWORD. This still only works for applications that are specifically set to use it though requires an entry in the applications manifest. You should also note that you cannot use relative path names with this method. Cannot delete file or folder. This article describes different methods to delete files or folders that cannot be deleted normally. After trying the following methods, please click here to let us all know your results. Table of contentsfor this article. Reboot. Reboot, then delete. DEL or RMDIROpen a command line window Windows. Key R, enter cmd. Move to the folder in question by means of CD commands like CD and CD foldername. Delete the file or folder by using the DEL command to delete files or the RMDIR remove directory command to remove directories folders. Kill explorer. exe. If this, on its own, is still not enough, then leave the command line window on the desktop, open Task Manager Ctrl Shift Esc, and kill all explorer. Your desktop will go blank, except for the windows already open. Now try to delete the offending file by means of the DEL command, or folder by means of the RMDIR remove directory command, in the command line window, as described above. After that, in the command line window enter explorerto restart your desktop. If you closed the command line window, you can still restart explorer by opening the Task Manager by holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys and briefly pressing the Esc key. In Task Manager select Applications, New Task and enter explorer. Log off. If the previous method fails, particularly with multimedia files, log off, then log on again, but do not select the file in Windows Explorer. The safest way is not to open Windows Explorer in the first place. Then try the previous method again. Reboot again. An even stronger measure would be to reboot, then try the previous methods again. This would work, for example, if a service has the file open. Delete containing folderThanks to John Barrington If you cant delete a problem file, try deleting the folder that contains the problem file. If this doesnt work, try this next item. If the problem file and its folder, well call A, is within another folder, well call B, try to delete the folder B along with any troublesome contents. Of course, you want to make sure, if you have any other important files or folders within either folder, that they are saved in another location first. Use RMDIR on containing folder. Begin like the previous method, but try alsormdir s foldernamereplace foldernamewith the name of the folder to be deleted. This command should delete a folder with all its subfolders. If the folder name contains one or more spaces, enclose it in quotes. Example rmdir s folder nameNote that the abbreviated command rd can be used in place of rmdir. Use short name. If the folder name contains strange characters, use a command line window again, but use the DIR X command to find the short name for example PROGRA1 and use the short name instead. The short name is DOS compatible and has no more than 8 characters for the main name, a period, then no more than 3 characters for the extension. Retry the previous methods that use a command line window, but use the short name now. Note Sometimes an illegal file name can cause Windows Explorer to use nearly 1. CPU time. Thanks to astk. Sometimes the abbreviated name can have a number other than one and can have an extension. If the above does not work, proceed as follows. Open a command line window Start, Run, type cmd, press the returnenter key. Navigate to the folder using cd . Type dir x to see the actual real short name of the subdirectory. Critically This may include an extension, e. ABDCEF1. XYZ. Type rmdir s abcdef1. Safe mode. Boot into safe mode and try to delete the file or folder there. Stop program. If youre trying to delete a program file, like one with the extension. Stop it, then delete the file. If the program starts automatically, check the article Autorun causes on how to remove the start command. Do it, reboot, then delete the file. Rename or move during next boot. If this also doesnt work, there is a way to rename or move a file or folder during the boot process. For this you need to use the registry editor REGEDIT. EXE. See the Registry warning for a general warning. Create a multi text value in. HKEYLOCALMACHINESYSTEMCurrent. Control. SetControlSession Managernamed Pending. File. Rename. Operations of type REGMULTISZ. In pre XP Windows versions you have to use REGEDT3. EXE to create this value type. The first line of each pair is the current file or folder path and name with in front of it. The second line of each pair is the new file or folder path and name with in front of it. Example for one pair which moves the file mfc. C TEMPmfc. 42. C WINDOWSsystem. You can add as many pairs as you like. The move operation is performed directly after the next reboot. You can also give folder paths, so the folder will be renamed. But both paths have to be local. There is a Windows API call for this, named Move. File. Ex, and somebody in Germany has even written a utility named Move. Ex for it. You can download it from http wwwthep. Use it if you need this function often. A Posix utility from a Windows Resource Kit named mv. Use another operating system. Boot into another operating system to delete the file from there. The other operating system can be, for example, another installation of Windows, Bart. PE, Knoppix, Ubuntu, or any operating system that can read the file system used NTFS or FAT3. Connect hard disk to other computer. Remove the hard disk from the computer and connect it to another computer. Delete the files or folders there. Use unlock utility. If you cannot delete a file or folder because it is in use, you can use one of the mostly free utilities, such as Unlocker. Internet Explorer 8 issues a warning when you open that page, but as far as I can tell I checked the code of the page at least superficially in March 2. Shorten names. If the cause is that the path and file name is too long, first try to rename folders in the path with shorter names. If that doesnt work, you can use the following method, reported 2. Mark Briody Open a command line window and use the subst command to create a virtual drive to the folder containing the long file name, e. C Documents and SettingsbriodymFavoritesMarkGadgets and HardwareHardwareStorese. Buyer. Then change to the virtual drive x, and you should be able to delete, rename, and move files and folders. Rayman 3 Hd Pc. Finally, to clean up, remove the subst again with subst x d. Deal with hidden or system filesThanks to warpcoil, who first described this method in a comment belowThis method deals with files that carry the hidden or system attribute. You can delete such files in Windows Explorer, if you set the folder options such that these files are shown in the first place, but the following method can delete them from a command line window. Open a command line window and navigate to the offending folder by means of the cd command. Show all files, using the attrib command. Note the attributes displayed as single letters on the left side of the listing Letter Attribute. RRead only. HHidden.