When Windows generates a short DOS file name, obeying the 8.3 file name convention, from a long file name, it uses the first six characters from the long file name followed by a tilde (~) and a numeric constant to break possible ties in the short file name. The tilde and the numeric constant are called numeric tails. You change this default behavior of Windows by modifying the Registry directly. Editing the Registry should be done only by experienced users and with extreme care and the Registry should always be exported or backed up before any changes are made.
1. Start the REGEDIT.EXE program.
2. Go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
3. Click the right mouse button in the open area of the right panel and select the New Binary Value item from the menu.
4. Type NameNumericTail exactly for name of the new key entry and press the Enter key.
5. Double click the new key entry to open the Edit Binary Value dialog box and enter a value from 0.
6. Restart Windows
The next time Windows will create a short file name, it will use the first 8 non-blank characters of the long file name. The system will still use numeric tails to avoid duplicate file names.