Build Error -7354 When Building a Project with More Than 8 Characters If There Is No Short Name Defined

[#1]

Summary

Error 7354 occurs when building a project with a shortcut or feature or string name with more than 8 characters.

-7354: The English (United States) value for string 'ID_STRING2' does not contain a legitimate value for table Directory column DefaultDir  

-7354: The English (United States) value for string 'ID_STRING3' does not contain a legitimate value for table Shortcut column Name

Project Types

• Basic MSI
• InstallScript MSI
• Express Project

Cause

Error 7354 was added to InstallShield 2016 and higher builds due to Microsoft string validations that were previously missing.

Error 7354 occurs when InstallShield attempts to create any string with more than 8 characters on a machine where NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation is not enabled.

Resolution:

The user needs to enable the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation option on the machine.

A Windows short name has 8 characters for the name and 3 characters for the file extension. Windows long names exceed 8 characters for the name. The suggested resolution works by enabling Windows short names.

Follow these steps:

1. Click Start > Run.
2. Enter regedit and click OK.
3. In the Windows Registry Editor, go to:
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
   
   
4. Right-click the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation entry.
5. Select Modify from the drop-down menu. The Edit DWORD Value dialog opens.
6. In the Value data textfield, enter: 2
7. Click OK to close the dialog.

You should see a message as follows:

The registry state of NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation is X...

State Values:

0 = 8.3 file creation is enabled on all volumes on the system

1 = 8.3 file creation is disabled on all volumes on the system

2 = 8.3 file creation is enabled per volume on the system (default)

3 = 8.3 file creation is DISABLED on all volumes except the system volume

Reference:

• A blog post about NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation.
• A StackOverflow post about Windows short names.
• Microsoft documentation about Windows short versus long names.
• Microsoft documentation about Windows long names.