LFN MS-DOS Shortcuts Do Not Run When 8.3 Names Are Disabled

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to run a long file name (LFN) MS-DOS shortcut on a Windows NT client with the shortcut residing on a partition that does not create 8.3 (short) file names, the following error message will occur:

   Program Not Found

   Windows Cannot Find <LFN Shortcut Name>.pif

   This program is needed for opening files of type "Shortcut to MS-DOS
   Program."

   Location to <LFN Shortcut Name>.pif:

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, perform on of the following:

• Move the shortcuts to a location that does generate short file names.

  -or-

• Create only short file names when creating shortcuts.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem can be caused by storing shortcuts on an NTFS partition after having disabled 8.3 name creation with the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation registry key.

For additional information on disabling 8.3 file name support, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q121144
   TITLE     : Disabling 8.3 Filenames on NTFS

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.