#What is a long path tool install

So yes, I think editing the registry is not the best option and the others should probably have been mentioned earlier here. Something that every Java dev should have installed and ready-to-use. In addition to that you can even use the jar tool of the JDK to unzip the STS4 distribution on your windows system via the command line: jar xf spring-tool-suite-4-4.3.0.RELEASE-e4.12.86_64.zip.

It works just fine (and a lot faster) if you use one of the many ZIP tools for Windows that are out there (for example 7-Zip), which I would recommend independent of this issue when you deal with ZIP files on Windows. But keep in mind that this problem happens only if you use the Windows built-in ZIP file support to unzip STS4.

#What is a long path tool install

Having long or deeply nested package names makes it more likely to hit this issue, long bundle names in Eclipse installs can cause the same (even though less likely than exploded JARs with deeply nested package structures).Д®diting the windows registry to enable support for long path is indeed a bit crude in order to be able to install STS4, I totally agree (I wonder why that support isn't enabled in Windows by default though, but that is another story). First of all, the 'path too long' problem is a long-standing and well-known issue on the windows operating system, especially when you unzip Java applications (but not alone Java apps).