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

Microsoft doesn't read these posts. Instead, when you report a bug to them, they'll sit on their hands until they get you on the phone. Then they'll waste your time because you now have to tell them that these posts say. It's a thankless task reporting issues to Microsoft, I really don't recommend it.

Yes, explorer doesn't do long paths, even if you enable them.

You'll want to use a command line tool for the copy you're describing. Robocopy is the built in tool for that job that supports long path names.

Robocopy has a gazillion parameters and is hard to get right. For these sorts of tasks, I've farmed out all those jobs to ChatGPT. I asked it to help you and it told me:

robocopy "\?\F:\YourFolder" "\?\C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\YourFolder" /E

Where f:\ is your external drive and the other folder is where you want to copy to. the \?\ is to pass a UNC, which windows likes for the long paths.

I use robocopy all the time and that line looks about right. Depending on where you're copying to, you may want to pick an Admin console or Admin powershell. (Do NOT use a "powershell ISE" console, since that doesn't do long paths either).

Hi all
I did all of this - simply type GPEDIT in the box and run "Edit group policy" For me, on windows 11 pro, ver22H2, OS build 22621.1702 just so ya know I'm current.

My job is pretty stupid and simple - we have archived a code base (1.6tb of files) and a lot of this is very deeply nested in paths that exceed 260 char limit for filenames. Programmers are smart but also when you hyper-organize into ridiculously deep files, it doesnt work on Windows :(

So simply put - I try to drag it all from an external hard drive over to my PC - and it barfs on about 3700 files that have this issue. In spite of GPEDIT... and i also checked regedit, of course its the matching config, this was successfully saved etc. With this many files I'm not going to be able to manually figure it out... so instead i had to go relatively deep into the file structure and copy subfolders that contained the offending files... and then save it all non-nested, and then someone will have to recreate it later. I sure do love this sh*t :)

and if you read the fine print "enabling win32 long paths will allowe manifested win32 applications... to access paths beyond the normal 260 character limit" what is a "manifested process" ?? seems that "copying files" or "making folders" or "viewing contents of these folders" is not something "manifested" ??

But yes - IT JUST DOESNT WORK MICROSOFT. Especially for simple stuff needed by regular people like me, like copying files into regular directories. I'm not powershelling or making scripts or running cmd stuff for my daily normal life, no thanks. Please fix this its NOT working 5/25/23

The ticket was closed months ago. Clearly Microsoft has little interest in fully supporting long path names in the enterprise versions of windows, so I really doubt if they have any interest at all with the home version. But, what you really want is GPEDIT on Windows 11 Home, and if you search for that, you'll find the stuff below, from: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-enable-the-gpeditmsc-on-windows-10-and-11/dbc76919-f2b5-4dec-a2b7-bcf545c34d00#:~:text=The%20GPO%20editor%20is%20fully,the%20Pro%2FEnterprise%20editions.%22

If it does what it says, it should allow you to enable long path names on Windows 11 Home edition:

Ive recently had to search for this informtion and thought I would share the answer. Sorce - Enable Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) on Windows 10/11 Home Edition | Windows OS Hub (woshub.com) "It is likely that, according to the Microsoft logic, the home user doesn’t need to edit the local settings through the gpedit.msc GUI. Accordingly, users of the Windows 10 home editions have to make changes through the registry editor regedit.exe`, which is not so clear and more risky since it is possible to make a mistake and break the system.

Fortunately, Windows 10 Home has the undocumented option to install the gpedit.msc editor from the Windows image packages and manifests repository (\Windows\servicing\packages).

How to Enable the GPEdit.msc on Windows 10 and 11 Home?

To install the Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home edition, open a command prompt as administrator and run two one-line commands in sequence:

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F")FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F") Also these commands can be used to install gpedit.msc console in Windows 11 Home. For convenience, you can save this code to a text file gpedit-install.bat and run it as administrator. Wait a while until DISM installs the packages from the Windows 10 component store.

In my case, the ClientTools and ClientExtensions packages were installed in Windows 10 Home:

Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~…~amd64~~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~…~amd64~en-US~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~…~amd64~~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~…~amd64~en-US~….mum

Now try to run the gpedit.msc console. The Local Group Policy Editor interface should open (no reboot required). The GPO editor is fully functional even in the Home edition of Windows 10 or Windows 11, and contains all the necessary policy sections that are available in the Pro/Enterprise editions."

The problem is still relevant

setting the DWORD registry key is a trap. It'll put your machine into a bad state if you're running win11.

The correct way to enable long path support on windows 11 is to only use the GPEDIT technique.

I suggest resetting both back to default. reboot. Then try the GPEDIT technique.

The GPEDIT method will change the DWORD in the registry to a non-zero value. I suspect there's other housekeeping GPEDIT does for the modification and I guess it skips it if the DWORD is already set.

But this doesn't solve the issue for people with Win 11 Home edition.

This ticket should not be closed.