Win32 256 character limitations

[Robert.Yung () L-3com com]

Hi List,

Hoping your varied experience can help with what I can't believe is
still an issue in filesystem management and what it might mean.
According to Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081/en-us) ,
NTFS supports paths that are much longer than 255 characters, but other
applications that run on top of Windows may not.  While I can't call
them liars, I've repeatedly found that even Windows Explorer and
Robocopy have problems copying and deleting files that have extremely
long file paths.  

So my questions are:

1)  Is there a way (third-party tool, some obscure windows trick, etc)
to *make certain* that users do not create paths greater than a certain
#?  If not prevent, can we at least make it easier for the user to know
that they are reaching potential problem areas with their filing
practices?  How do companies deal with this problem when doing file
migrations for upgrades and disaster recovery?  There must be some way
to manage this issue.

2)  Can/do viruses exploit this bug at all to create files that are
unscannable by A/V?

Anyone with commentary on anything related to 256 character limitations
in production file server environments would be greatly appreciated.  

Potential products to investigate are also welcome!

Thanks in advance,
Rob