Has anyone tried enabling long path support in Windows Registry recently? I attempted to do this on a few computers, but it seems like it isn't functioning properly. Both Notepad and Office applications fail to open files when their total path length exceeds 260 characters. According to documentation, this feature should work with applications designed for it, but I recall it working fine with Office apps in the past. Does anyone know if there have been any recent updates or changes that might affect this?
2 Answers
Just a heads-up: while Windows does support long file paths, not all applications do, including many desktop applications. A good way to check is to use 7-zip; if you can manage long paths with that, then Windows is fine. If not, the registry setting might be misconfigured or not functioning.
We've also noticed that long paths aren't working in Office apps, even with the registry edit applied. This issue surfaced about a month ago, and now users encounter it regularly with a file or two. There might have been a recent change on Microsoft's end related to Office, considering we are still on version 24H2.
Exactly! It's hit or miss. In some cases, enabling long paths doesn't help at all and users still run into problems.