Long file path issues in Windows 11 Pro with Microsoft VS Code and File Explorer

Anonymous
2022-05-04T22:27:47+00:00

I spent way too long debugging a compile error in MS VS Code (64bit version 1.66.2). It would fail with 'file not found' or 'unable to access file' errors. The workspace is located in "C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My Workspaces\firmware", with several levels of nested source folders below.

Initially, I got several linking errors due to Controlled Folder Access protection using the Ransomware protection built-in to Windows Security. I whitelisted ar.exe and as. exe, but the errors persisted. I even turned off Ransomware protection. Seeing a thread online about long file paths reminded me I hadn't enabled that on Windows 11 yet (fresh install), so I changed the following settings and rebooted the PC:
Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\LongPathsEnabled set to 1.

Group Policy: System "Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Filesystem>Enable Win32 long paths" enabled.

About that time I noticed an issue with not being able to delete or rename files on an SMB share that were in a deep path. If I went to the other system and moved them up a few folders I was again able to rename the files.

Both of these scenarios work fine from my Windows 10 Pro PC. My Windows 11 Pro PC is a fresh install (Version 21H2 Build 22000.613).

So I believe Windows 11 isn't respecting my Long Paths settings. As a final test, I moved my VS Code Workspace folder to system drive root (C:\firmware) and it compiled without error.

I've seen other questions on here about Windows 11 path length issues that were brushed away because they were encountered using non-Microsoft 3rd Party software, but this is all built-in File Explorer and Microsoft's own VS Code product.

My question is, how do I actually allow long file paths in Windows 11 Pro?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-03T10:55:24+00:00

    Sua resposta é mais correta que a do "12 Prêmios inúteis de MVP" que não sabe responder e manda o usuário para um novo tópico, devem ganhar "Prêmios" por dar as resposta "Mais Vazias Possíveis" ou pelo número de postagens totalmente inúteis...

    Voltando ao que interessa, também estou com o mesmo problema, tanto as configurações de registro, quanto as de política não funcionam nas compilações 22621.1900, 22621.2213 e nem na 22621.2215...

    Mas Microsoft é microsoft mesmo, começa algo, contrata um bando de incompetente e depois "lança" algo com uma "Capa nova" e o interior cheio de buracos, é só ver o gerenciador de dispositivos e de discos é quase o mesmo do windows 98... Inovação não tem o nome microsoft, só inovam na capa...

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-06-11T07:54:07+00:00

    Hi guys, I may have the trick.

    I'm on Win11 22H2, build 22621.1778.

    Enabling the Win32 long paths via gpedit alone not solve the issue if you're using Windows Explorer.

    TL;DR

    But just use 7-zip (as the file explorer) to move the files/folders does the trick, hope this helps you all.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-31T17:58:50+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T16:05:39+00:00

    While true, that's entirely irrelevant. No normal person is using Windows via the command line.

    Even me, who knows my way around a cmd prompt would never want to have my daily/hourly/minutesly interactions go via the command line.

    It's fine if you have a **** ton of files to copy over from path A to B and it contains deep nesting, etc.

    That'll generally be a one-time thing, so fine to whip out the command line for that (with the added benefit that robocopy is much faster at doing this than WinExplorer).

    It's entirely another thing if you're just going about your daily business of managing/organizing your files.

    How often I don't hit this limit while simply organizing my files, it's just stupid and annoying in this day 'n age.

    Worst of it is that, while Explorer shows the file that exceeds the character limit, it then doesn't allow you to rename said file (without even an error, just doesn't save the edit).

    So overall, for many people WinExplorer == Windows. Having that one support long paths is the very least you could expect from them.

    For such simple rename operations, to get files within the limits I've found that opening the folder in WinRAR allows me to properly rename the files in that folder that way. Though there's no way I'm gonna start using WinRAR as WinExplorer.

    You'd pretty much have to replace WinExplorer by a 3rd party app to be able to fully do basic file management these days.

    At this point it's obvious they don't care to fix it though.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T15:48:05+00:00

    had the same issue recently and robocopy did the job well. it's a command that you can run in cmd that will copy even the most deeply nested files.

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