Believe it or not, file name limits aren't all that easy to come by. The reason it's difficult is because you have limits imposed by NTFS itself, limits imposed by the Windows operating system, and limits imposed by the application dealing with the files (e.g., Windows Explorer or File Explorer).
Experimentation reveals that for a file created at "C:\", you can create a file name with at most 255 characters. If you were to try to create a file with a longer path (e.g., "C:\Documents"), the length of the file name would have to be reduced accordingly. This implies that in addition to the length of the actual file name, you also have to deal with the name of the path, which, according to Microsoft, is set at 260 characters for local files.
File names can use any character in the current code page, including Unicode characters and characters in the extended character set (128–255), except for the following:
This tip (5835) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.
A system image is a snapshot of your system disk as of a certain point in time. Should the need arise, you can restore ...
Discover MoreIf you ever want to copy user accounts, documents, pictures, etc., from one computer to another, you'll find that Windows ...
Discover MoreYou can fine-tune Indexed Searches by removing locations from the search index. This tip tells you how.
Discover MoreThere are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments