Sick of Windows telling you that a file path can only be 260 characters long? Well, in the latest Insider build, you can use some trickery -- either in a Group Policy or registry hack -- to make it happen.

Here's everything  you need to rid yourself of the 260 character shackle and create big paths to your heart's content!

First, you can edit the Group Policy. To do so, enter gpedit.msc into the Windows 10 search box. From there, navigate to the following: Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem > NTFS. Double-click on the Enable NTFS long paths option to turn remove the 260 character limit.

If you don't have a version of Windows that supports editing Group Policy, then you can use the Windows registry editor. Use the windows search box and type regedit. Navigate to the following key (it's a deep one):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\ {48981759-12F2-42A6-A048-028B3973495F} Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies

Select the LongPathsEnabled key, or create it as a DWORD (32-bit) value if it does not exist. Set the value to 1, and close the editor.

Remember, this will only work with the latest preview build of Windows 10, though we do expect it to be added with the upcoming Anniversary Update.

Why do you need to use longer than 260 characters in your paths? Share you story in the comments!

Image Credit: Fotovika via ShutterStock