If you use Limewire and download a song with a real long title you might find that when you go to delete it or rename it, Windows crashes. Windows XP chokes on files longer that 128 characters for some reason.
There is a work around.
Find the location of the file c:\xxx\yyy\uuu, then write down the first 5 characters of the file and its extension like .mpg
Now go click on Start-->Run and type in cmd and hit enter. You’ll get a dos window with a c:\documents and settings.
You want just a plain c: prompt so type in CD \ (there is a space between D \).
At the c: prompt, type in cd and hit the space bar. Hit the tab key and you will see the directories off of the root go by with each push of the tab key. When you get to the directory you want, hit the enter key then type cd space and tab to the next level. Keep doing it until you get to the directory that has the file you want to tinker with. (this tab feature only works with XP)
Now hit control alt delete and bring up the Task Manager. Move this window over so the two open windows don’t overlap. Select Processes, click on explorer.exe and select end process. Don’t close the window. All of your desktop icons just disappeared—its normal.
Mouse to the DOS windows and click. Now we want to rename the problem file. Deleting it doesn’t seem to work. So type in ren [space] [first 5 letters] [*][.file extension] then a space and new file name and hit enter It should look like this:
ren abcde*.mpg new1.mpg.
REN is short for rename, and the * is a wild card for anything in between.
Type in DIR and hit enter and you should see the newly named file.
Now move over to the other window and click on File-->New Task (Run) and type in explorer.exe and enter. This will get you back your desktop. Now you can do what ever you want to the file.
This might be a tad faster than a reinstall
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:38 pm
I wonder if any one can help here . I have a few files I wish to delete
I will re-install after the Christmas Break.