Explorer (known in MS jargon as "the shell", but I'm avoiding the term because it confuses Unix users) is limited by MAX_PATH characters when it stores absolute

Explorer (known in MS jargon as "the shell", but I'm avoiding the term because it confuses Unix users) is limited by MAX_PATH characters when it stores absolute paths. Win32 allows you to use paths above MAX_PATH in length when you 1. Use the utf-16 filename apis and 2. prefix your path with \\?\. But the shell doesn't do the latter. It may also use fixed size buffers for paths, that is a common reason for such limitations.