Windows computer name length limit

Avoid Unicode characters if queries will be passed to the servers that use non-Microsoft implementations of DNS. The underscore has a special role. But newer DNS servers may also allow it anywhere in a name. Otherwise, import , export , and take control operations fail. You might however create host headers for a web site hosted on a computer and that is then subject to this recommendation.

Because some UTF-8 characters exceed one octet in length, you can't determine the size by counting the characters. For more information, see rfc NetBIOS domain names can contain all alphanumeric characters except for the extended characters that are listed in Disallowed characters.

Periods shouldn't be used in Active Directory domains. If you are upgrading a domain whose NetBIOS name contains a period, change the name by migrating the domain to a new domain structure.

The names of an upgraded domain can include a reserved word. However, trust relationships with other domains fail in this situation. There is no inherent problem with this, but there may be applications that filter the name and assume a DNS name when a period is found. When promoting a new domain, you get a warning that an underscore character might cause problems with some DNS servers.

But it still lets you create the domain. Single-label DNS names are names that don't contain a suffix, such as. For example, host is a single-label DNS name. Most Internet registrars don't allow the registration of single-label DNS names. Generally, we recommend that you register DNS names for internal and external namespaces with an Internet registrar. For example, corp. Registering your DNS name with an Internet registrar may help prevent a name collision.

A name collision may occur if another organization tries to register the same DNS name, or if your organization merges with another organization that uses the same DNS name. By default, Windows Server based domain members, Windows XP-based domain members, and Windows based domain members don't perform dynamic updates to single-label DNS zones.

For more information, see Deployment and operation of Active Directory domains that are configured by using single-label DNS names.

Don't use top-level Internet domain names on the intranet, such as. If you use top-level Internet domain names on the intranet, computers on the intranet that are also connected to the Internet may experience resolution errors.

A disjointed namespace occurs when a computer's primary DNS suffix doesn't match the DNS domain of which it is a member. For example, a disjointed namespace occurs when a machine that has the DNS name of dc1. A Windows NT 4. The domain is renamed when the forest is at the Windows Server forest functional level. Autonomous Systems. Education Sector. Microsoft Localization.

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Active 9 years, 2 months ago. Viewed 35k times. Improve this question. FogleBird FogleBird 1 1 gold badge 9 9 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. I've heard it will handle over 9, before you start to see issues.

The text field in the dialog for changing the name on XP seems to have a 64 character limit. The other issue you could run into is UNC paths. There is a max length for UNC paths characters???