Re: Question about support related to Windows 7

A password can start with the letter Q with no more issues nor restrictions, than whatever would be the concerns for a password that starts instead with the letter P. The Q prefix shenanigans is specific to a password that is [or should be recognized as being] all digits. That is why the password Q1234 is *the same as* 1234. I am almost positive that a password of Q7CHARLIE is *not* the same as 7CHARLIE; I am not interested in trying, and I can not find any documentation about the effects.

I did however find one presumably reliable source that states the issue is specific to when the letter Q is "followed only by digits" as applied to either a User Profile name or a password of a *USRPRF:
http://securemyi.com/nl/wDec052012.html

I guess had I continued reading the above, I would have seen that the documentation can be found in the "Help text of the CRTUSRPRF (Create User Profile) command." Thus a doc link, even if not a very thorough explanation is included below. No surprise I could not find it, because neither "letter Q" nor "all digits" appear. There is no clarification that the Q prefix implicitly limits an all-digit name or an all-digit password to only nine characters instead of the typical ten:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/cl/crtusrprf.htm
"_User profile (USRPRF)_
Specifies the user profile to be created. A numeric user profile can be specified. If the user profile is numeric, it must begin with a Q.
...
_User password (PASSWORD)_ When the system is operating at password level 0 or 1 and the password is numeric, then the password must begin with a Q, for example, Q1234 where 1234 is the password used for signing on the system."


Regards, Chuck

On 17 May 2013 07:20, John McKee wrote:

<<SNIP>>

I had forgotten about the restriction about not starting with q or a
digit. The two people at IBM had not mentioned that either.

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 9:08 AM,<rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>
... password ...
</snip>

<<SNIP>> Must start with a letter. Do not start with a Q.

Why not a Q? Something to do with Q1234 being the same as 1234.