MS-DOS long file names

[Guest]

We use a communications program (Procomm Plus) that works in MS-DOS. All the
PCs in the shop are running Windows 98 SE except one which is Windows XP.
After putting the XP PC in service we find that the Procomm will not
recognize our long file names (I.E. 100400100P.pme). On the Windows 98 PCs
it would automatically shorten the name with a ~ somewhere in the name (I.E.
1004~9.pme or something like that). With the XP PC it says the file is not
found. Is there a way to revert back to the old way with out going back to
98 SE?

 

[Dave Patrick]

These articles may help.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fileio/fs/naming_a_file.asp
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...68f4-4204-b403-0282273bc7b31033.mspx?mfr=true

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| We use a communications program (Procomm Plus) that works in MS-DOS. All
the
| PCs in the shop are running Windows 98 SE except one which is Windows XP.
| After putting the XP PC in service we find that the Procomm will not
| recognize our long file names (I.E. 100400100P.pme). On the Windows 98
PCs
| it would automatically shorten the name with a ~ somewhere in the name
(I.E.
| 1004~9.pme or something like that). With the XP PC it says the file is
not
| found. Is there a way to revert back to the old way with out going back
to
| 98 SE?

 

[NewScience]

From a Command Prompt window, type:

DIR /x

and see if you have shortnames.

If not, type:

fsutil behavior query disable8dot3

and see if it comes up 0.

If it comes up 1, then all 8.3 filename generations are disabled.

You can unset by:

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1

 

[Guest]

Ok everything seems to be set properly. A little more information. What we
do is use windows search to find the file name. Then we click and drag the
file name into Procomm. On the windows 98 machines it will fill in the file
name with the shortened file name. On the xp machine it is using the long
name. I did look at the file system types and the 98 machines are fat32 and
the XP is NTSF. I hope this will help in solving are problem.

 

[NewScience]

FYI: My instructions where wrong to unset:

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 0 (not 1 as I earlier posted)

Fat32 by default of the OS is ShortName processing.
NTFS by default is LongName.

Are the files placed in the same folder? Does ProComm have a File | Open
option?

How old is the ProComm app on the XP system? Time to upgrade ProComm for
XP?
A Newer ProComm should not do this. If this is the latest and greatest,
contact ProComm.

 

[Eric]

Yes, Windows search does not recognize shortened ~ file names.
DOS does.
If you open a DOS prompt in Windows XP (Run > CMD), you can type DIR
{shortened file name}and it will show you the long file name.
If you don't know what directory the file is in, try DIR /s
If the output of DIR /s is too long to search through (XP DOS window has
scroll back), try DIR /s {file name} > output.txt. Then you can load the
text file in your favorite editor and search for the result.

 

[Guest]

win 98 would find long name, you click long name drag to ms-dos program and
it fills in as short name. So bottom line is go back to win 98 or try to
find new dos program. I am sure there is thousands of communications
programs. All we are doing is communicating in ASCII with a factory machine,
any recomendations?

 

[Rock]

Yes, Windows search does not recognize shortened ~ file names.
DOS does.
If you open a DOS prompt in Windows XP (Run > CMD), you can type DIR
{shortened file name}and it will show you the long file name.
If you don't know what directory the file is in, try DIR /s
If the output of DIR /s is too long to search through (XP DOS window has
scroll back), try DIR /s {file name} > output.txt. Then you can load the
text file in your favorite editor and search for the result.

"Scott" wrote

There is no DOS in XP. It's a command line interpreter, similar in certain
aspects to DOS commands, but it is not DOS.

 

[Guest]

How does this help?

There is no DOS in XP. It's a command line interpreter, similar in certain
aspects to DOS commands, but it is not DOS.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

Rock

How does this help?

It doesn't, much. There are two command line interpreters in NT-based
OSs, Command.com and Cmd.exe, and there are circumstances that can
flip either of these from LFN mode to 8.3 mode when Windows is the
underlying kernel (Command.com is always LFN-unaware when DOS mode,
i.e. IO.SYS, is the underlying kernel).

Raymond Chen blogged about this effect once; some concerted
Googling... er, searching... may find the relevant blog post. As I
recall, it happens after some 8.3-unaware program is used in the
course of that DOS console session; thereafter, all Prompt, Dir
listings etc. are in raw 8.3 for the life of that session.

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