How to Enable or Disable Win32 Long Paths in Windows 11/10

Do you know you can only have 260 characters in a path under Windows 11/10? If you are having trouble with this limitation and are looking for a way to enable Win32 long pathsthis is the guide for you.

It is by default in Windows that you cannot access a path longer than 260 characters. This includes the path and file name. You can see The filename(s) would be too long for the destination folder type of error message. Now for a normal user this is not a problem. But for some people who name their files with longer names, this will be a problem. The only solution for them is to enable NTFS or Win32 Long Paths in Windows 11/10.

Contents

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There are two ways to enable or disable Win32 long paths in Windows 11/10.

1. 1. Via Regedit
   2. Via Local Group Policy Editor

Let’s see how we can activate or deactivate them.

Make Windows accept file paths longer than 260 characters

Enable Win32 long paths via Regedit

To enable Win32 long paths via Regedit-

1. Open Regedit
2. Paste the file system folder path
3. Find the LongPathsEnabled DWORD file and double-click it
4. Change to the value from 0 to 1 and click OK

Let’s get into the details of the process.

Click on the Start menu and type RegEdit. You will see Registry Editor in the results. Open it.

In the Registry Editor windows, paste the following path to the FileSystem folder in the address bar and press Walk in.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlFileSystem

In the FileSystem folder, locate the LongPathsEnabled and double click on it.

You will see a small DWORD window. Change the value from 0 to 1 and click OK to save changes.

It will allow long paths on your PC. If you want to disable it, you can change the value from 0 to 1 at any time.

Lis: Source path too long? Use SuperDelete to delete files with such errors.

Enable Win32 Long Paths via Local Group Policy Editor

To enable Win32 long paths via gpedit or Local Group Policy Editor,

1. To research gpedit and open it from start menu or run box
2. Click on the Filesystem folder in the sidebar
3. In Filesystem files, double-click Enable Win32 long paths
4. Check the radio button next to Enabled
5. Click OK to save changes

Let’s get into the details process.

Click on the start menu and search for gpedit.msc and open it from the search results.

In the Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate to:

System Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > File System.

In the components of the file system folder, double-click Enable Win32 long paths to open it.

Then, in the Enable Win32 long paths window, check the radio button next to Enabled to enable long paths and click OKAY at the bottom of the window to save the changes.

Enabling Win32 long paths will allow manifested win32 apps and Windows Store apps to access paths beyond the normal limit of 260 characters per node on file systems that support it. Enabling this setting will make long paths accessible in the process.

It will allow long paths on your PC. You can disable long paths at any time by checking the radio button next to Disabled.

Note that Windows Home editions do not have a Group Policy Editor. You need to add it.

POINTE: The Long Path Fixer tool will fix path too long errors.