How the heck did it happen that the link I posted is the same as Steve's? The one I *meant* to post is this one:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884202

No idea what happened...

Could it be related to this?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314866

(That only applies to the EULA acceptance part, admittedly, but thought I'd throw it out there as a possibility...).

By default, it is in 2000 and 2003. Not sure about 2008:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299656

The reason for the 14-character password in Windows things comes down to the old LanManager password hashes Microsoft used to use, which would split the password into two 7-character chunks...

Speaking as someone who got the old bait and switch pulled on me--e.g. turned up for what I thought was going to be an interview, but they decided to give...

Could this be down to the AUTO_CLOSE setting? This is set by default on SQL Express and will cause your database to close down when there are no users connected...