How do I find files with a path length greater than 260 characters in Windows?

Question

I\'m using a xcopy in an XP windows script to recursively copy a directory. I keep getting an \'Insufficient Memory\' error, which I understand is because a file I\'m tryin

Answer 1

From http://www.powershellmagazine.com/2012/07/24/jaap-brassers-favorite-powershell-tips-and-tricks/:

Get-ChildItem –Force –Recurse –ErrorAction SilentlyContinue –ErrorVariable AccessDenied

the first part just iterates through this and sub-folders; using -ErrorVariable AccessDenied means push the offending items into the powershell variable AccessDenied.

You can then scan through the variable like so

$AccessDenied |
Where-Object { $_.Exception -match "must be less than 260 characters" } |
ForEach-Object { $_.TargetObject }

If you don't care about these files (may be applicable in some cases), simply drop the -ErrorVariable AccessDenied part.