You receive a "The name specified contains invalid characters" error message when you try to create a new user account in Microsoft CRM 1.2 (896087)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to create a new Microsoft CRM user account by using the Web client, you receive the following error message:

The name specified contains invalid characters. The following characters are not allowed:

+#,*"<>;=[]:?/|'

Remove any invalid characters from your name and try again.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if you try to create a user account for a user who has an alias that contains an apostrophe. For example, this problem occurs if you try to create a Microsoft CRM user account for the following user.

First name	Tina
Last name	O'Dell
User logon name	to'dell
Domain	adatum.com

RESOLUTION

Microsoft CRM has a fix for this problem that is part of a cumulative update. The cumulative update information is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

904435 Update Rollup 2 is available for Microsoft CRM 1.2

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, create the user account by using the Microsoft CRM Deployment Manager tool. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft CRM, and then click Deployment Manager.
In the Deployment Manager tool, expand User Manager, right-click your organization, point to New, and then click Create CRM Users.
Follow the steps in the User Manager Wizard to create a CRM user account for the Active Directory user account that has a special character in the user alias.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about the terminology that is used to describe Microsoft product updates, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates

887283 Microsoft Business Solutions CRM software hotfix and update package naming standards