For MS-DOS version 6.22 and earlier, filenames cannot exceed eight characters and filename extensions cannot exceed three characters in length (referred to as "8.3 filenames"). The period character (.) is used only to separate the filename from the filename extension. With long filename support in Windows 95, these 8.3 filename constraints are gone.
For all Windows 95 file systems, users can specify filenames that are up to 255 characters long and that can contain more than one period. These long filenames are any names that exceed 8.3 characters in length or contain any lowercase character or any character that is not valid in the 8.3 name space.
The following sections present information about long-filename support in Windows 95, including information and recommendations for supporting long filenames in a mixed network environment.