SyncToy failing silently because of long path name (& relatedWindowsFormsParkingWindow shutdown problem)

[prepbgg@googlemail.com]

SyncToy failing silently because of long path name (& relatedWindowsFormsParkingWindow shutdown problem)

I have SyncToy (version 1.2.0.75) set to run "All Folder Pairs"
automatically from a Scheduled task.

I experienced three sets of symptoms:

1. The SyncToy automatic backup stopped working

2. On occasions, SyncToy would not start up when I tried to run it -
no errors were reported, the window simply failed to open.

3. On occasions, when I tried to shut down Windows XP, the shutdown
process would hang (fail) with a WindowsFormsParkingWindow error
message.

I believe that all three sets of symptoms were caused by one problem,
namely that the path name for one of the files which was supposed to
be backed up by SyncToy was too long for it to handle. I discovered
this by doing a manual "All Folder Pairs" run which resulted in a Path
Too Long message. I presume that when the automatic scheduled run
encountered this file it caused SyncToy to crash without shutting down
properly, resulting in symptoms 2 and 3 mentioned above.

I hope this helps someone who encounters the same set of problems as
me.