Microsoft® Windows® Desktop Deployment Resource Kit

Fixing Long Filenames

Windows XP Professional stores two versions of every filename. The long filename is what you normally see, such as This Is A Long File Name.txt. It also stores a short filename, which is the first six alphanumeric characters of the long filename with a ~N, where N is a number beginning with 1. So, the short filename version of This Is A Long File Name.txt is THISIS~1.txt.

If you’re installing Windows XP Professional from Windows PE, you don’t have to worry about the length of filenames. Windows PE can read and write long file-names, and you’re starting off with the NTFS file system. If you’re installing Windows XP Professional using an MS-DOS boot disk, you have a problem. MS-DOS can’t see long filenames, and you’re starting ...