Customizing password policy under Windows 10/8/7



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On some websites, you may have seen that you need to enter a password for the registration that meets the criteria set by the website (for example, a password must be at least 8 characters long, contain upper and lower case letters, etc.). You can also implement this feature in Windows 10/8/7 using the local security policy for Windows or an advanced command prompt for users of other editions of Windows 10/8/7.

Change Windows password policy



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Use local security policies

Type Local Security Policy in the Start menu Search and press Enter. The LSP window opens. In the left pane , select Password Policy under Account Policies. Six options are now listed on the right.

Details of each of these options are listed below.

Enforce Password history : This security setting determines how many new unique passwords must be assigned to a user account before an old password can be reused. The value must be between 0 and 24 passwords. This policy allows administrators to increase security by ensuring that old passwords are not constantly reused.

Maximum password age : This security setting determines how long (in days) a password can be used before the user has to change it. You can set passwords to expire after a number of days between 1 and 999, or you can set passwords to never expire by setting the number of days to 0. If the maximum password age is set to 0, the minimum password age can be any value between 0 and 998 days.

Minimum password age : This security setting determines the period (in days) during which a password must be used before the user can change it. You can set a value between 1 and 998 days, or you can allow changes immediately by setting the number of days to 0, where the minimum password age must be less than the maximum password age, unless the maximum password age is set to 0, which means that passwords will never expire. If the maximum password age is set to 0, the minimum password age can be set to any value between 0 and 998.

Minimum password length : This security setting determines the minimum number of characters a password can contain for a user account. You can set a value between 1 and 14 characters, or you can specify that no password is required by setting the number of characters to 0.

Password must meet complexity requirements : This security setting determines whether passwords must meet complexity requirements. If this policy is enabled, passwords must meet the following minimum requirements :

– does not contain the account name of the user or parts of the user’s full name that exceed two consecutive characters
– must contain at least six characters
– contains characters of three of the following four categories :

  • English capital letters (A to Z)
  • English lower case letters (a to z)
  • Base 10 digits (0 to 9)
  • Non-alphabetic characters (e.g. !, $, #, %)

Complexity requirements are applied when changing or creating passwords.

Save password with reversible encryption : This security setting determines whether the operating system stores passwords with reversible encryption. This policy supports applications that use protocols that require user password knowledge for authentication purposes. Reversibly encrypted password storage is essentially the same as storing plain text versions of passwords. For this reason, this policy should never be activated unless the application requirements outweigh the need for password protection.

To change one or all of these options, simply double-click the option, select the appropriate option and click OK.

Use the expanded command prompt

Search type in the Start menu. Under Programs, right-click and select Run as administrator.

The commands and their explanation are listed below.

net accounts /minpwlen:length – Sets the minimum number of characters a password must contain. Replace the word length by the desired number of characters. The range is 0-14

Example : Net accounts /minpwlen:7

net accounts /maxpwage:days –The maximum number of days after which the user must change the password. Replace days with the desired value. The range is from 1 to 999 and there is no limit in case of unlimited use (16). The value of must always be greater than .

Example : Net accounts/multi-year salary:30

net accounts /minpwage:days – This sets the minimum number of days that must elapse before the password can be changed. Replace days with the desired value. The beach is 1-999.

Example : Net accounts /minute wage:10

net accounts /uniquepw:number –Determines the number of times a password can be reused. Replace the digit with the desired value. The maximum value is 24th

Example : Net Accounts /uniquepw:8

To use a command, simply type it at the command prompt as shown and press Enter.

To check settings, enter Net Accounts and press Enter.

An overview of all settings is displayed !



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