Is there a limit to the number of entries for the Dictionary?

Question

As the subject states, is there a limit to how many custom words we can add? 
 
 Thanks 
 Wade

Jim.Casey · Answer

Hi Wade, 
 
There is no technical limitation on number of lines in the dictionary. 
Dictionary.ppm is a text file. Password Policy Manager opens the file and reads it line by line, comparing current line against password according to the rules. It does not store dictionary lines, hence there is no limitation. 
 
However there may be a limitation from performance point of view. i.e. if the dictionary contains billions of lines, during each password reset/change billions of lines will be read and analyzed. During this time a Domain Controller will be waiting and possibly may timeout or get locked and crash. It is difficult to provide an estimation of what the optimum maximum number of dictionary entries should be since it is highly dependent on number of parallel password resets, performance of DC, etc. 
 
Also, there is a limitation on line length: 260 characters. If you want to write a poem in one line it will be cut at character 260. 
 
Regards, 
 
Jim C.