Title: Windows Compatibility Fix Author: Dave Jesch Published: May 4, 2017 Last modified: October 22, 2018 --- Search plugins This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress. ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/fix-windows-compatibility.svg) # Windows Compatibility Fix By [Dave Jesch](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davejesch/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility.zip) * [Details](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/fix-windows-compatibility/#description) * [Reviews](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/fix-windows-compatibility/#reviews) * [Installation](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/fix-windows-compatibility/#installation) * [Development](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/fix-windows-compatibility/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/) ## Description This plugin will fix long filename problems on Windows systems when doing updates from third-party plugin repositories, such as updating from EDD based sites. **Usage Scenarios:** We’ve found that users on Windows systems that are upgrading themes and plugins from a third-party repository, such as an Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) site have problems. They will see an error message of “Update Failed: Could not create directory…”. The reason for this is that during the update process, the file name requested from the EDD site has the product name, user name and other information encoded within it so that EDD knows who is requesting the file. This results in a very long file name. This is not necessarily a problem WordPress itself, or even EDD, as this works on non-Windows systems. But if you are running WordPress on Windows and see this error, it is because of the long file name requested. If you are using DesktopServer for your local development on Windows and would like to use the Windows Compatibility Fix plugin as a Design Time plugin, you can install this in your C:\xampplite\ds-plugings directory and it can then be automatically activated and used with all of your local development web sites. This allows you to use the plugin in your local environment, where it’s needed and not to deploy it to your live environment where it may not be needed. For more information on DesktopServer and local development tools, please visit our web site at: https:// serverpress.com/get-desktopserver/ Because this fix is only needed on Windows systems, the plugin checks the operating system on which it is running and does not initialize itself. If you are having problems with the update process on non-Windows systems, it is more likely an issue with directory permissions. **How it Works:** The Windows Compatibility Fix plugin uses a couple of WordPress filters employed during the update process. It modifies the name of the file that is downloaded to your system, shortening it to just a few characters. This allows WordPress’s update process to work correctly on Windows systems by not creating the long file name in the first place. **Support:** > **Support Details:** We are happy to provide support and help troubleshoot issues. > Visit our Contact page at [http://serverpress.com/contact/](http://serverpress.com/contact/). > Users should know however, that we check the WordPress.org support forums once > a week on Wednesdays from 6pm to 8pm PST (UTC -8). ServerPress, LLC is not responsible for any loss of data that may occur as a result of using this tool. We strongly recommend performing a site and database backup before testing and using this tool. However, should you experience such an issue, we want to know about it right away. We welcome feedback and Pull Requests for this plugin via our public GitHub repository located at: [https://github.com/ServerPress/Windows-Compatibility-Fix](https://github.com/ServerPress/Windows-Compatibility-Fix) ## Installation Installation instructions: To install, do the following: 1. From the dashboard of your site, navigate to Plugins –> Add New. 2. Select the “Upload Plugin” button. 3. Click on the “Choose File” button to upload your file. 4. When the Open dialog appears select the windows-compatability-fix.zip file from your desktop. 5. Follow the on-screen instructions and wait until the upload is complete. 6. When finished, activate the plugin via the prompt. A confirmation message will be displayed. or, you can upload the files directly to your server. 1. Upload all of the files in `Windows-Compatibility-Fix.zip` to your `/wp-content/ plugins/windows-compatability-fix` directory. 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress. ## Reviews ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c2658a342bbb720f7267cee45aeb881a853d386d0a9ca387f128c17195181af? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Works like a charm](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/works-like-a-charm-1749/)󠁿 [arteagacz](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arteagacz/) July 26, 2020 Solved my issues with local WPML updates! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/448b8014a7a002fe98765460f04475e5f15b4c85519d05f3705f637aedb87397? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Great Plugin! – Still Works with WP 5.4.2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-still-works-with-wp-5-4-2/)󠁿 [crazylarry001](https://profiles.wordpress.org/crazylarry001/) July 9, 2020 As far as I knew my file permissions were set okay but wasn’t really sure. Tried this first and it worked straight up. Easy! Thank you!! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1cb55363c5e9cb48b4aeec36de1b025aa77109a0307282493a4a93ff24183065? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Saved me hours of frustration](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saved-me-hours-of-frustration-2/)󠁿 [Osama Ibrahim](https://profiles.wordpress.org/usamaibrahim93/) April 1, 2020 I was trying to unsuccessfully update a plugin on my windows server. It took me hours of all the messing with file permissions and stuff until I found this plugin and it worked like a charm! Thank you so very much! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3c6cc83611367d8d1cec94ec909a9cb8a518bb030e23be6d77b142068fbb4406? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[great – works as expected](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-works-as-expected/)󠁿 [njwp](https://profiles.wordpress.org/njwp/) March 29, 2018 Perfect – solves any messing around having to do manual installs. Thanks hepas! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/bb3809b61f2e245a24c27497ceca933fff0c3cefc50e45ad152328e04b633764? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Windows Compatibility Fix – 5+ stars](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/windows-compatibility-fix-5-stars/)󠁿 [Doug](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ddodge2/) December 26, 2017 BOOM! Worked right out of the box, the first time. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2e649b26d079a3d17a9b0512a65acbcd35ac852c73ef5052a7fbcde30ee6906f? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[windows server](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/windows-server-11/)󠁿 [flamenco](https://profiles.wordpress.org/flamenco/) December 6, 2017 I had a plugin that wouldn’t update on my windows local server. I was pointed to this plugin as a fix for long filenames, and wow, immediate success! Thanks, Dave!! PS: I’ve got a tiny fix for you here. 🙂 Your plugin title here has the typo “compatability”, and I think you want “compatibility” there. Interestingly, the plugin URL is already good, so no problem with that! [ Read all 8 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/) ## Contributors & Developers “Windows Compatibility Fix” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ Dave Jesch ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davejesch/) * [ ServerPress ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/serverpress/) * [ SpectrOMTech ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/spectromtech/) * [ Steveorevo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/steveorevo/) [Translate “Windows Compatibility Fix” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/fix-windows-compatibility) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/fix-windows-compatibility/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/fix-windows-compatibility/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/fix-windows-compatibility/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/fix-windows-compatibility/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.2 – Aug 27, 2018 * Make this a DesktopServer Must-Use plugin #### 1.0.1 – Jan 22, 2017 * Fix typo in plugin name in readme (Thanks Dave C.) #### 1.0.0 – May 3, 2017 * Initial release to WordPress repository. #### 1.0.0 – Mar 29, 2017 * Initial Release ## Meta * Version **1.0.2** * Last updated **7 years ago** * Active installations **1,000+** * WordPress version ** 4.0 or higher ** * Tested up to **5.0.25** * Language * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/fix-windows-compatibility/) * Tags * [theme](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/theme/)[update](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/update/) [upgrade](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/upgrade/)[windows](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/windows/) * [Advanced View](https://frp.wordpress.org/plugins/fix-windows-compatibility/advanced/) ## Ratings 5 out of 5 stars. * [ 8 5-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/?filter=5) * [ 0 4-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/?filter=4) * [ 0 3-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/?filter=3) * [ 0 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/?filter=2) * [ 0 1-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/?filter=1) [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ Dave Jesch ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davejesch/) * [ ServerPress ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/serverpress/) * [ SpectrOMTech ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/spectromtech/) * [ Steveorevo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/steveorevo/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/fix-windows-compatibility/) ## Donate Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin? [ Donate to this plugin ](http://serverpress.com)