WINDOWS 11 continues to support the legacy 8.3 file-naming system inherited from MS-DOS. It creates shortened aliases for some long filenames, often using a tilde (~), even on modern file systems such as NTFS. Microsoft documentation says administrators can disable creation of these aliases globally or on individual volumes, including NTFS, FAT and ReFS, for performance reasons.
The article says several users reported smoother scrolling in File Explorer’s tile view, faster file searches and improved transfers to Android devices after disabling 8.3 alias generation and removing existing aliases. However, the reports are anecdotal, and the benefit is expected to be most relevant to developers handling NTFS directories containing millions of files; on smaller volumes, any improvement may be imperceptible.
Disabling the feature can also create compatibility problems for older software that relies on short names, so the article recommends that most users leave it enabled and consider deactivation only as a diagnostic step for serious File Explorer performance issues. Administrators should note that switching off new alias generation does not automatically remove aliases already present on a volume; the article directs them to Microsoft’s file-naming documentation for the relevant commands and rules.