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Article:
  NTFS Performance Hacks
Subject:   Be careful disabling 8.3 filenames!
Date:   2005-11-15 12:39:17
From:   zmerch
8.3 filenames can be very helpful in times of virus or spyware deletion. Many long filenames will have illegal characters imbedded in them, which will cause the DEL command to not be able to remove. A quick-n-dirty way to delete these files/directories is to use the 8.3 filename.


First, find out the 8.3 filename, using DIR /X on the afflicted directory.


Then, for those who miss the old DOS DELTREE command, DEL /F /S badfil~1.dir will do the same thing.


Hope this helps,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger