260 Character Limit, Get-ChildItem

Question

I understand there is a 260 character limit for win32, but I am curious as to why my code is half working. See below.

$Age_of_Files = -30
$Path = \'\\\\         


        

Answer 1

This is a limitation of the Win32 API (see also). There's a PowerShell Module that supposedly works around the issue (haven't used it myself, though).

A common workaround is to shorten the path by substing the longest accessible path to a drive letter

& subst X: C:\longest\parent\folder

working on drive X:, then deleting the temporary drive afterwards:

& subst X: /d

For network paths use net use to the same end:

& net use X: \\server\share\longest\parent\folder
...
& net use X: /d