<div>
Thanks guys - we use the UPN suffix for &quot;user logon name&quot;, however for the pre-2000 login name we have always limited to 8 characters.<br />
<br />
When it says pre-2000, is it referring to the OS of the the oldest DC, the domain functional level, the forest functional level, or the OS of the client PC?
</div>


<div>
It refers to the OS of the client <br />
<br />
<i>&quot;The logon name used to support clients and servers running older versions of the operating system, such as Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, and LAN Manager. This attribute must be less than 20 characters to support older clients.</i> &quot;<br />
Thanks<br />
Mike<br />

</div>


<div>
Not quite, sorry; the pre-Windows 2000 name is the user name that was used in NT domains, but it's still used even from an XP client during logon when a user enters only his name in the &quot;User Name&quot; field, and uses the dropdown box for the domain/workstation to authenticate against. &quot;pre-Windows 2000&quot; is referring to &quot;everything&quot; -- it's just the &quot;friendly&quot; name for sAMAccountName; the 20 character limit applies always.<br />
In other words: it's the only possibility for NT4 clients to logon to an AD domain, but it can be (and mostly is) used from XP as well (and W2k or later additionally support the UPN, but then the full UPN has to be entered in the User Name field).
</div>


<div>
It can be used in all OS versions but the poster said they were using UPNs <br />
...what was being asked was what was the &quot;pre-windows 2000&quot; part specifically referring to. &nbsp;(i.e. why is it written there)<br />
Thanks<br />
Mike<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />

</div>


<div>
That is correct for Mike.<br />
The reason that you use pre-2000 differnt than your UPN is that you may have at one point with Client older than windows 2000 such as NT4/98/85. But even you did had those clients in a mixed domain with win2k and NT4 domain controller, still, you should not make the logon name different than your pre-2000 name just to keep consistent within your enviornment to avoid confusion. But if you don't have anymore of those system older than Win2000, i suggest you keep them consistent to reduce administratove overhead and there's really no reason to manage two different naming formats, unless you still have old client and already used UPN format, then eliminate those old system asap.
</div>


<div>
boy, each time i write something there's already more posted ahead of me....<br />
<br />
Anyway, i believe the client older than win2k does not recognize the UPN format and will rely on the pre-Windows 2000 format whether it's in the form of domainname\usersname or really the netBIOSname\username.<br />
<br />
I don't remember if i have ever remember putting a UPN on a NT4 client but what I remember is that it doesn't support UPN suffix.
</div>


<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
We are giving our users a pre-2000 login name of up to 8 characters only..<br />
<br />
Our domain is primarly Windows 2000/2003 servers, all DC's are 2003 and clients are all XP.<br />
<br />
Is it absolutely necessary to stick to 8 characters? Why can't we use more?
</div>
</div>


We are giving our users a pre-2000 login name of up to 8 characters only..

Our domain is primarly Windows 2000/2003 servers, all DC's are 2003 and clients are all XP.

Is it absolutely necessary to stick to 8 characters? Why can't we use more?

Length of pre-2000 login name

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft brand for identity-related capabilities. In the on-premises world, Windows Server AD provides a set of identity capabilities and services, and is hugely popular (88% of Fortune 1000 and 95% of enterprises use AD). This topic includes all things Active Directory including DNS, Group Policy, DFS, troubleshooting, ADFS, and all other topics under the Microsoft AD and identity umbrella.

Active Directory

Windows 2000 is an operating system for use on both client and server computers. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the last version of Microsoft Windows to display the "Windows NT" designation. Four editions of Windows 2000 were released (Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server) that shared a core set of features, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console. All versions of the operating system support NTFS 3.0, Encrypting File System, as well as basic and dynamic disk storage. The Windows 2000 Server family includes support for Active Directory services, Distributed File System and fault-redundant storage volumes.

Windows 2000

Windows Server 2003 was based on Windows XP and was released in four editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. It also had derivative versions for clusters, storage and Microsoft’s Small Business Server. Important upgrades included integrating Internet Information Services (IIS), improvements to Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP), and the migration to Automated System Recovery (ASR).