How can I use path names longer than 255 characters?

A. Windows NT has a maximum path size defined as MAX_PATH which is 255 characters. It is possible to use more characters by calling the wide (W) version of CreateFile and prefixing "\\?\" to the path. The "\\?\" tells the function to turn off path parsing. This lets you use paths that are nearly 32,000 Unicode characters long. You must use fully-qualified paths with this technique. This also works with UNC names.

The "\\?\" is ignored as part of the path.

For example, "\\?\D:\documents\faq.txt" is seen as "D:\documents\faq.txt".

Programs expecting to find legal file lengths may fall over attempting to open a file with a long path. If, for example the buffer they are putting the path into expects a legal file length.

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