I found that I still have a "Sandboxie" folder although I had
uninstalled it.
So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
delete a file because its name was too long.
Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
No way to rename, move or delete it.
I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
Any suggestion please?
Thanks
Horst

Hello horst,

Try move it to another location where you have full access (c-drive for example
and delete it there). If this doesn't help, you can try with robocopy.exe
to move it to external drive and even if it seems to be on the disk, you
should be now able to delete it. After that format the external drive and
you should get rid of it. Did it this way 2 weeks ago with a complete folder
structure and works.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

> I found that I still have a "Sandboxie" folder although I had
> uninstalled it.
> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
> delete a file because its name was too long.
> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
> No way to rename, move or delete it.
> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
> Any suggestion please?
> Thanks
> Hors

Try substituting the folder in which the file resides for a drive then
try deleting the file from the substituted drive. At the Command Prompt:

SUBST x: "c:\Program Files\Some Program Name"

To delete the substituted drive:

SUBST x: /d

John

horst wrote:

> I found that I still have a "Sandboxie" folder although I had
> uninstalled it.
> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
> delete a file because its name was too long.
> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
> No way to rename, move or delete it.
> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
> Any suggestion please?
> Thanks
> Horst

In news:%(E-Mail Removed),
horst <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:

> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
> delete a file because its name was too long.
> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
> No way to rename, move or delete it.
> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
> Any suggestion please?

Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:

dir /x some*

will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:

del somehe~1

Drag and drop it into the RECYCLED folder and forget about it.

On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
> In news:%(E-Mail Removed),
> horst <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>
>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>> Any suggestion please?
>
> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>
> dir /x some*
>
> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:
>
> del somehe~1
>
>
Dear friends,

thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!) 111
characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archi...15/504240.aspx (only for
those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and the
whole path!
Thank you again
Horst

"horst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
>> In news:%(E-Mail Removed),
>> horst <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>>
>>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>>> Any suggestion please?
>>
>> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
>> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>>
>> dir /x some*
>>
>> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:
>>
>> del somehe~1
>>
>>
> Dear friends,
>
> thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
> But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!) 111
> characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
> i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
> Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
> http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archi...15/504240.aspx (only for
> those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
> And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
> C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and the
> whole path!
> Thank you again
> Horst

John's suggestion would have worked very nicely, provided that
you access the "undeletable" file from drive X:, not from drive C:.

On 15.06.2008 13:00, Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
> "horst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
>>> In news:%(E-Mail Removed),
>>> horst <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>>>
>>>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>>>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>>>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>>>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>>>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>>>> Any suggestion please?
>>> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
>>> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>>>
>>> dir /x some*
>>>
>>> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:
>>>
>>> del somehe~1
>>>
>>>
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
>> But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!) 111
>> characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
>> i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
>> Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archi...15/504240.aspx (only for
>> those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
>> And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
>> C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and the
>> whole path!
>> Thank you again
>> Horst
>
> John's suggestion would have worked very nicely, provided that
> you access the "undeletable" file from drive X:, not from drive C:.
>
>
I was just curious to see if you are right: I recreated the file
(restoring it from a backup) and used John's suggestion.
Actually the command
SUBST x: /d
just eliminates the path x: but not its content.
So I tried in the DOS window (as it is not accepted in the command line)
DEL p:\*.*
and it worked IMHO only because the total length of the path+file name
was now reduced to about 111 characters.
Horst

horst wrote:

> On 15.06.2008 13:00, Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
>
>> "horst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>> On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
>>>
>>>> In news:%(E-Mail Removed),
>>>> horst <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>>>>
>>>>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>>>>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>>>>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>>>>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>>>>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>>>>> Any suggestion please?
>>>>
>>>> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
>>>> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>>>>
>>>> dir /x some*
>>>>
>>>> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then
>>>> delete:
>>>>
>>>> del somehe~1
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
>>> But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!)
>>> 111 characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
>>> i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
>>> Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
>>> http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archi...15/504240.aspx (only
>>> for those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
>>> And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
>>> C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and
>>> the whole path!
>>> Thank you again
>>> Horst
>>
>>
>> John's suggestion would have worked very nicely, provided that
>> you access the "undeletable" file from drive X:, not from drive C:.
>>
> I was just curious to see if you are right: I recreated the file
> (restoring it from a backup) and used John's suggestion.
> Actually the command
> SUBST x: /d
> just eliminates the path x: but not its content.
> So I tried in the DOS window (as it is not accepted in the command line)
> DEL p:\*.*
> and it worked IMHO only because the total length of the path+file name
> was now reduced to about 111 characters.

Maybe I should have given more instructions in my post. When I said
"delete the file from the substituted drive" it meant to navigate to
drive X: and try deleting the file there, or from a command prompt to
use X: for the path (del X:\filename.ext). SUBST x: /d was meant to
tell you how to remove the substituted drive after you were done,
deleting a substituted drive doesn't remove its contents.

And by the way, the so-called "long filename" always includes the path,
hence why I suggested substituting the drive, as you had said that the
actual filename (without the path) was only 111 characters, the problem
had to be the length of the path and by using the subst command the path
was reduced to 3 characters. Had you said that the actual name was
greater than 255 characters I would have suggested a different method,
using the subst command would not have sufficiently reduce the filename
length.

John

On 15.06.2008 19:31, John John (MVP) wrote:
> horst wrote:
>
>> On 15.06.2008 13:00, Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
>>
>>> "horst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>>> On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In news:%(E-Mail Removed),
>>>>> horst <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>>>>>
>>>>>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it
>>>>>> couldn't
>>>>>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>>>>>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>>>>>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>>>>>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>>>>>> Any suggestion please?
>>>>>
>>>>> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype",
>>>>> in a
>>>>> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>>>>>
>>>>> dir /x some*
>>>>>
>>>>> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then
>>>>> delete:
>>>>>
>>>>> del somehe~1
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Dear friends,
>>>>
>>>> thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
>>>> But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!)
>>>> 111 characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
>>>> i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
>>>> Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
>>>> http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archi...15/504240.aspx (only
>>>> for those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
>>>> And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
>>>> C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and
>>>> the whole path!
>>>> Thank you again
>>>> Horst
>>>
>>>
>>> John's suggestion would have worked very nicely, provided that
>>> you access the "undeletable" file from drive X:, not from drive C:.
>>>
>> I was just curious to see if you are right: I recreated the file
>> (restoring it from a backup) and used John's suggestion.
>> Actually the command
>> SUBST x: /d
>> just eliminates the path x: but not its content.
>> So I tried in the DOS window (as it is not accepted in the command line)
>> DEL p:\*.*
>> and it worked IMHO only because the total length of the path+file name
>> was now reduced to about 111 characters.
>
> Maybe I should have given more instructions in my post. When I said
> "delete the file from the substituted drive" it meant to navigate to
> drive X: and try deleting the file there, or from a command prompt to
> use X: for the path (del X:\filename.ext). SUBST x: /d was meant to
> tell you how to remove the substituted drive after you were done,
> deleting a substituted drive doesn't remove its contents.
>
> And by the way, the so-called "long filename" always includes the path,
> hence why I suggested substituting the drive, as you had said that the
> actual filename (without the path) was only 111 characters, the problem
> had to be the length of the path and by using the subst command the path
> was reduced to 3 characters. Had you said that the actual name was
> greater than 255 characters I would have suggested a different method,
> using the subst command would not have sufficiently reduce the filename
> length.
>
> John

Thank you, John, for your detailed explanations.
The only thing I didn't understand is why DEL X:\*.* does work in the
DOS window but not in the Windows execute line.
Horst