November 28, 2012

Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination path is too long. rename the compressed (zipped) folder and try again.




Error: 
Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination path is too long. rename the compressed (zipped) folder and try again.

Symptom:

When in Outlook, you receive some zip attachments. If you double click on a zip file (attachment) by right clicking and selecting open, you might get an error message that says "Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination path is too long. Rename the compressed (zipped) folder and try again."

Cause: 

In some cases, the error message is correct in describing the problem. If your file path is long and the file name is long then yes this error is valid. But there can also be another reason this happens when opening (in particular zipped PDF's). It happens when you have enabled the "Remove Run menu from Start Menu" Group Policy setting on the computer.


Work around:
1) Drag the file to a new location.
2) Double-click on the file, and then select Save. Then, save to the desktop and rename the file.




Microsoft has a hotfix:





 

5 comments:

  1. Try using Long Path tool program. This is very useful.

    ReplyDelete

  2. I would like to suggest you, try LongPathTool program to resolve this issue.
    This tool is very helpful to resolve the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't delete a file due to the filename being too long. I tried Long Path Tool it works very fine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What do you know, When cleaning files from a Windows Operating System (OS), you are halted with errors relating to the filename or the file path being too long.
    This is due to a 255/260 character limit on Windows Operating Systems preventing the files in a directory from being removed.
    You can used Long path tool/software!

    ReplyDelete