What happens if you try to create a new folder (using Windows Explorer) that has 9 or more characters? What happens if you try to save a file (say a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet) with a file name of 9 or more characters? My guess is that you will get some sort of error message indicating that this is an invalid folder or file name.

Depending of the version of Windows and your network, it may be set up to disallow folders or file names with more than 8 characters. It may be that you are using an old version of Windows (ie 95 or maybe even 98) or an old version of Novell network or Client. Should either of these turn out to be the case, you'll need to talk to your I.T. person in order to address this. The majority of new software applications now assume that you are allowed to use long file name (or names with spaces). Certainly Windows NT/2000/XP allows this, as does Windows 98 usually.