Error: The specified path is too long

Axis
Occurs: When installing Zed Axis under certain Windows configurations you may experience the error "The specified path is too long". This error blocks the successful installation of Zed Axis. 

Cause: Axis uses a Microsoft installer, the error message is misleading as the path does not exceed the maximum of 140 characters as specified by Microsoft. We are not sure of the cause.  But from other discussions the following resolutions are suggested

Resolution: Please try the following steps to resolve this:
  1. Using Windows Explorer move the shortcut (symlink) for the Public folder (ie C:\Documents and Settings\All Users) to the Desktop and retry the installation
  2. Move the Public link back after the installation.

OR if that does not work try installing on a different installation of Windows
Article ID: 187, , Modified: 8/23/2012 at 12:56 AM

Feedback

Long Path Tool helped me in this situation. http://PathTooDeep.com
Gabriel Nar (11/10/2012 at 8:05 AM)
I was able to solve the issue and install Zed 11. The error message is incorrect, in my case (Win 7 x64) it was that the directory didn't actually exist - long story short, the symbolic links for "Documents and Settings", "All Users", and "Documents" all pointed to the wrong drive ---> "Documents and Settings" pointed to "D:\Users" instead of "C:\Users" -- I just had to delete the links and recreate them with the correct drive letter. There are a number of programs to change the links or you can do it from the command prompt. The easiest way to check if this is your problem is to open the command prompt and type "dir /a c:\" and get the directory listing of the root folder. You should see "<JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [XXXXX]" and what's in the brackets should be the path to your Users folder - in my case, C:\Users.
Ben Walters (10/24/2014 at 2:14 PM)
Good job Ben, This is the exact problem we were having as well(windows server 2012 rd, zed axis 12), and this solution still worked well, although I will note, that we had to repeat these steps for several symbolic links such as "All Users". For anyone who is going to attempt this, use the "mklink" command. It is still a mystery why the symbolic links on our system were pointing to non-existent drives...
Paul Ishak (3/22/2018 at 2:34 PM)

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