Cute way of getting 8.3's from Windows:

Visual Basic: Shell Command From VB: "You can use the FileSystemObject and a File Object to get the short path name, something like:

Dim fso As FileSystemObject
Dim f1 as File
Dim sShort As String

Set fso = New FileSystemObject

Set f1 = fso.GetFile(app.path & '\convert.bat')

sShort = f1.ShortPath

Set f1 = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing

Shell ShortPath"