Tools to handle Shortname removal?

arachnaut

New Member
Power User
Messages
282
Location
Sunnyvale, CA USA
I just read

Windows 8 File System Performance and Reliability Enhancements in NTFS.
Neal Christiansen. Principal Development Lead. Microsoft:

http://www.snia.org/sites/default/f...ealChristiansen_Win8FileSystemPerformance.pdf

and particularly noticed this:

short-filename-impact.png

So I ran the commands to check these things on my system.

The commands look like this:

Code:
>fsutil 8dot3name
---- 8DOT3NAME Commands Supported ----


query   Query the current setting for the shortname behaviour on the system
scan    Scan for impacted registry entries
set     Change the setting that controls the shortname behavior on the system
strip   Remove the shortnames for all files within a directory

I disabled 8dot3names on all but boot drives and removed them with the strip option.
This seemed to go well, but I don't recommend using it on USB Flash drives - it takes forever.

I left them on the system drive C: and looked over the report, which dominates with Office shortnames. Here is a sample of the scan output (I removed the Hive key display to make it fit):

Code:
C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\MICROS~1\OFFICE14\MSOICONS.EXE,6 
C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\Office14\WINWORD.EXE /Automation 
C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\Office14\EXCEL.EXE /automation 
C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\Office14\GRAPH.EXE /automation

There are so many I don't want to remove them manually and even a registry search and replace would take some time:

Code:
>fsutil 8dot3name scan /l E:\Temp\fsutil-8dot3-C.log /s C:
Scanning registry...


Total affected registry keys:                1236


Scanning 8dot3 names...


Total files and directories scanned:       373526
Total 8dot3 names found:                   234863
Total 8dot3 names stripped:                     0

Does anyone know of an automated tool that will search for these registry settings and replace the shortnames with the long name?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
By the way, I don't recommend anyone randomly strip these file names from their system, especially if they have Office tools.

Many of the registry entries relate to uninstall features and various internal hooks. So it looks pretty dangerous to do it on your system drive.

Be sure to check the registry entries that are affected by doing a trial run first before the commit (with the scan parameter).
But if you have a lot of data files like I do (I have lots of audio samples) - removing about 500,000 files from your MFT will probably be a nice thing.

It probably would not hurt to disable future File Shortname creation, but don't quote me on that.

As with any radical change to the NTFS system, make sure you know what you are doing and have a good partition and registry backup.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
If I run the command 'fsutil 8dot3name scan /s C:' I will get a list of all the short (8.3) file names that will have a registry impact if I delete (strip) them in the NTFS directory of the drive.

Doing so shows me over 1000 such registry conflicts, the vast majority are due to Microsoft Office 2010.

Today I tried an experiment, I set up the C: drive to disable 8dot3 file name creation and uninstalled Office.

When I ran the scan I then saw 479 registry conflicts with one program being the major issue, so I uninstalled that one, too.

The next scan showed 238 registry conflicts with many programs involved, but within the range of something that could be handled with a registry search and replace function.

So I re-installed Office 2010 (64-bit) in Windows 8 (64-bit) with 8dot3 file name creation off on drive C: as well as that other program.

After the re-installs (and subsequent Windows Updates for 36 Office updates) I did the re-scan.

To my amazement, frustration and bewilderment, the number of conflicts was back up over 1000 - so the Windows Installer must somehow override the short filename setting!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
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