Windows: The specified path, file name, or both are too long (MAX_PATH)

Quick fix

Read the commands before running them. Anything that restarts a service, deletes data or changes permissions should be tried on a non-production system first.

# Enable long paths system-wide (requires admin, then reboot)
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem' `
  -Name LongPathsEnabled -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force

# Tell git to use them too
git config --system core.longpaths true

# Practical mitigations
# - clone into a short root such as C:\src\ rather than a deep Documents path
# - use pnpm, whose store keeps node_modules shallow

How to diagnose Windows errors

Windows errors surface as numeric codes that mean little on their own, but the operating system keeps detailed logs that almost always contain the real cause. Two categories dominate developer machines: missing Visual C++ redistributables (a DLL-not-found error for a runtime the application assumed was present) and architecture or dependency mismatches (the 0xc000007b family, usually a 32-bit/64-bit mix).

If the quick fix above does not resolve it, work through these steps. They apply to this whole class of error, not just to this one message, which is usually what saves the time.

1. Read Event Viewer under Windows Logs → Application and System, filtered to the time of the failure. The numeric code in the dialog maps to a detailed entry there.
2. For MSI failures, install with verbose logging: msiexec /i package.msi /l*v install.log, then search the log for "Return value 3". The lines just above name the failing action.
3. For missing DLLs, install the matching Visual C++ Redistributable and confirm the architecture matches the application (x64 versus x86).
4. Repair system corruption with sfc /scannow followed by DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, in that order.
5. For access-denied errors, check both NTFS permissions and whether the process needs elevation; UAC virtualisation can make writes appear to succeed while landing elsewhere.

Tools worth reaching for

• Event Viewer
• msiexec /l*v
• sfc /scannow
• DISM /RestoreHealth
• Process Monitor (ProcMon)

Authoritative references

Primary documentation for this error, worth reading before applying any fix in production.

📖 learn.microsoft.com

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Something missing or wrong?

This entry is maintained by hand. If the fix is out of date, incomplete, or you have a better one, email a correction and it will be reviewed.