A bit of empirical testing shows me that the maximum filename length including full directory path in Windows XP seems to be 255 characters.

I have some very deeply nested files in my music directory. For example:

D:\_MP3\CLASSICAL\Composers A-B\Beethoven, Ludwig Van\Beethoven Sonatas for Piano\Beethoven Piano Sonata in C Minor\Beethoven, Ludwig van - Beethoven Piano Sonatas - 05 - Beethoven-Sonata in C Minor Op 111 1st Mvt. (Maestoso Allegro con brio ed appassionato).mp3

If you wanted to take the trouble, you would count that filename and path at 262 characters. While Windows won't allow one to create a filename that long, I believe that MP3 Tag Studio will. I am pretty sure that is how that filename came into being.

That file is in a directory with another similarly named file -- but the second filename (with directory path) is exactly 255 characters long.

Here is the problem:

Windows will let me play, change filename, delete, etc. the second file (the one tht is 255 characters long) but the first file (the 262 character file) I can do nothing with. Windows Media player will bring up the file, but it just sits there, doesn't play it. I can't rename the file, I can't delete the file, I can't do anything with the file except look at it in Windows Explorer. I can't do anything with it at a DOS prompt because of the spaces in the filename (I get invalid syntax error) and I don't know of any utilities currently in my computer that will work with it.

How can I re-name this file so Windows will work with it?

tanstaafl.