Is there a limit to numbers of Windows accounts?

Is there a limit to numbers of Windows accounts?

How do you know it is 2048?

Muz said:

How do you know it is 2048?

I think that was a joke, as the Smiley indicated. The theoretical limit is probably a bit higher than that....

I believe the theorical limit would be the number of SID values available in the local SAM Account database, which is 2^30 - 1, or 1,073,741,823. This would be the maximum number of objects (of all classes) that can ever be created. Of course the first object you create is number 1000. All lower values are reserved for built-in objects. Practical limits would be much less.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...m=winservergen

..but however many local accounts you create, there is a hard limit of 20 concurrent connections to a Windows 10 PC. If you need more than 20 users to simultaneously connect to a share then you need to pay for a Server edition of Windows.

How many concurrent connections file shared in Windows 10 Home support

I doubt there is a defined limit. In the real world the limit would depend on resource usage, primarily registry and disk usage. When an account is first created it is just entries in the registry. The size of each account can vary widely and the registry cannot grow without limit. But when you first log in with the account the user profile is created and that requires disk space. This too will vary widely. But accounts are created to be used. The disk space consumed by an active user account varies widely.

2048? Is it proven that only 2048 accounts can be created?

Muz said:

2048? Is it proven that only 2048 accounts can be created?

This was answered in post #4. It was meant as a joke and not meant to be taken seriously.

I am sure there is some theoretical limit to the number of accounts in Windows 10. But it doesn't matter what it is because the number is unreachable. There are many such limits in Windows and other operating systems. It was never intended to impose a limit but because of the way things are done the limit exists. But due to practical considerations the limit is unreachable.

In any event 2048 accounts on a local computer is ridiculous. Of course a domain controller running Active Directory in a large corporate network can have far more, and many do. But this is very different from Windows 10 or any other client OS.