Disable automatic creation of short file names

[xp_user]

I read somewhere that Windows automatically creates a mirror entry for each file in a directory to support older programs that don't read LFNs - is it possible to disable this feature to reduce bloating?


--------------= Posted using GrabIt =----------------
------= Binary Usenet downloading made easy =---------
-= Get GrabIt for free from http://www.shemes.com/ =-

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Reduce bloating? Have a look at the size of your average file.
I bet it is greater than 10,000 bytes. A short file name requires
11 bytes, or around 0.1% of the average file size . . . Now
since the cost of disk space is less than $1.00 per Gigabyte,
you would save 10 billionths of a Dollar per file if you could
disable this feature (which I don't think you can).

I read somewhere that Windows automatically creates a mirror entry for

each file in a directory to support older programs that don't read LFNs - is
it possible to disable this feature to reduce bloating?

 

[Michael Bednarek]

I read somewhere that Windows automatically creates a mirror entry for each file in a directory to support older programs that don't read LFNs - is it possible to disable this feature to reduce bloating?

[Try to keep line length to something reasonable, like 72 characters]

Two methods spring to mind:

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1

or the registry:

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
Name: NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation REG_DWORD 1

Reboot. Existing SFNs will remain.

Be prepared for a number of things to break - the registry is full of
SFNs, SFNs with spaces in them can no longer be accessed, and you can
expect some unfortuitous results from restoring a backup.

For completeness' sake, here is how one can disable LFNs:

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem (same as above)
Name: Win31FileSystem REG_DWORD 1

This is of course even more likely to break stuff.

Your call.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

each file in a directory to support older programs that don't read LFNs - is
it possible to disable this feature to reduce bloating?

[Try to keep line length to something reasonable, like 72 characters]

Two methods spring to mind:

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1

or the registry:

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
Name: NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation REG_DWORD 1

Reboot. Existing SFNs will remain.

Be prepared for a number of things to break - the registry is full of
SFNs, SFNs with spaces in them can no longer be accessed, and you can
expect some unfortuitous results from restoring a backup.

For completeness' sake, here is how one can disable LFNs:

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem (same as above)
Name: Win31FileSystem REG_DWORD 1

This is of course even more likely to break stuff.

Your call.

Now this is a useful command, fsutil.exe! Until now I had been
unaware of it. It seems to come with WinXP only but the WinXP
version appears to run well under Win2000.

 

[Jerold Schulman]

I read somewhere that Windows automatically creates a mirror entry for each file in a directory to support older programs that don't read LFNs - is it possible to disable this feature to reduce bloating?


--------------= Posted using GrabIt =----------------
------= Binary Usenet downloading made easy =---------
-= Get GrabIt for free from http://www.shemes.com/ =-

If you have no 16-bit applications, you can implement
tip 0026 » NTFS - Disable 8.3 Name creation.
in the 'Tips & Tricks' at http://www.jsifaq.com

Jerold Schulman
Windows Server MVP
JSI, Inc.
http://www.jsiinc.com
http://www.jsifaq.com