up vote 6 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Is there a limit to the number of allowed characters for Windows computer names? If so, what is the limit?

link|improve this question
I've heard it will handle over 9,000 before you start to see issues. – Josh K Mar 16 '10 at 20:42
The text field in the dialog for changing the name on XP seems to have a 64 character limit. – FogleBird Mar 16 '10 at 20:53
The other issue you could run into is UNC paths. There is a max length for UNC paths (256 characters???) so if your machine name is long, and you have long share names, or deep directory structures, you could have issues. – BillN Mar 16 '10 at 23:13
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 8 down vote accepted

According to MS KB, max. length varies, based on what the computer is supposed to do

NetBIOS computer names:
Minimum name length
1 character.

Maximum name length
15 characters.

DNS computer names:
Minimum name length
2 characters.

Maximum name length
24 characters.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.