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In the process of determining whether or not to disable 8.3 filenames on an NTFS volume which is only ever accessed by 64-bit Windows. Since 64-bit Windows does not support 16-bit applications, 16-bit compatibility is not an issue.

However, this seems to have the possibility to cause issues with some 32-bit applications. Example:

  • Chrome 19.0 uses the following command: to launch its Flash plugin: C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe "C:\PROGRA~2\Google\Chrome\APPLIC~1\190108~1.52\gcswf32.dll",BrokerMain browser=chrome
  • There is this bug report from 2010, which seems to have been "fixed", but as of mid-2012, the bug still exists in some form.

The question is: Is there reliable a way to determine which applications are accessing/making use of, short filenames without actually making the switch?

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Obviously these paths are not hardcoded in modern programs like Chrome, so they must be getting it from some older function calls, which have probably been updated to return none-8.3 names if it is disabled. Why don't you backup your system and just disable it and see what happens? – billc.cn Jun 9 '12 at 18:27
I have turned off the 8.3 filename compatibility, and Flash works fine in Chrome. I think you'll be fine. – Randolph West Jun 9 '12 at 21:06
Anecdotally, I've had 8.3 filenames turned off for a couple of years without any problems. I'm using Windows XP 32-bit and have used Chrome on-and-off – Paul Walker Jun 9 '12 at 21:13

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